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Vinyl VS Digital

After 20+ years I broke out my turn table from the 70's again.  I have been mostly listening to CD and streaming music for the last 15 years on higher end gear in a dedicated and treated home theater room.  I also have a dedicated two channel system in the same room.  

All the hype surrounding analog has prompted to me to purchase a dedicated preamp so that I could once again hook up my TT.  I also purchased an Aurlic Aries to compare.  I'm ready to upgrade my old Technics SL 1600 MK2 running a Grace Cartridge.  But I have concerns.  

I could care less about the additional hiss, crackle and Pop thats not in digital.  I think its cool to put on an album and just listen to my 30 year old small collection from when I was a teenager.    

I started doing A/B comparisons by switching between the TT and the Aries (FLAC).  I even bought new vinyl to do so.  The thing keeping me from going "All In" is the imaging.  No matter what I do with (aligning the cartridge), I cannot get the imaging to match that of digital.  Specifically, voice and instrument that stems from center stage with digital cannot be reproduced with the TT as source.  One might say the stage is wider but its too wide to point where definition is lost.  Don't get me wrong it still sounds good but is it right?  Is it my TT or is it in the recording.  Or is this the difference I am suppose to be hearing?


  
ap_wannabe
Post removed 
basement
245 posts
 
wow. It's been awhile, but I guess the debate still exist. 

Short version: there is much more actual information on vinyl than there is with digital, so it takes a lot less money and effort to build/buy an analog rig than a digital one. But once a certain "level" is obtained in an analog (records) rig, there is no digital that can sound as good. 

It's been a long time for me, just getting back into it, Barely learning about streaming and such. But what is surprising, is nearly 10 years later, digital seems to sound worse than it ever did. Even though more "bits" are available, the streamers and streaming systems I have heard don't sound as good as the cd players to me. 

Shouldn't be hard to get an anolog record player to blow away the imaging and pinpoint soundstaging of a digital rig, as well as being nuetral at it. And fun to get there.
syntax's avatar
syntax
2,193 posts
 
Before I am going to buy a vinyl record I'll buy the same title 2.hand cheap at ebay. For a sound check. When it is flat, compressed, lifeless.... I'll throw it away (95%) and don't buy the record ( when it is done after 2005).
Digital saves me a lot of money.
2psyop's avatar
2psyop
1,866 posts
 
A friend of mine, analog fan, states you must do VTF on the fly by ear to eliminate distortion. He claims VTA and VTF are very important.

gillatgh's avatar
gillatgh
381 posts
 
Thinking this is a valuable thread I’m compelled to tell my story. I found my digital fascination during the early days of the digital revolution. I was entranced with the format that offered so much. Analog was dead and gone. Since the mid 80s my analog devices, TT and RR, were relegated to "look pretty but be silent" status. Eventually the RR was sold off to finance a better CD player. The trusted TT sat gathering dust as my digital fever blossomed. Eventually I worked myself into HT and all its associated glamour. My cd collection grew into the thousands. All the early recording conversions AAD, ADD and finally DDD and HDCD are still in my collection. As time and listening went by I started to get the impression that there was something missing in the digital realm. I recalled from days past the warm glow and smoothness that I so much enjoyed. In early 2017 I dusted off the old TT and phono pre and dug out an old LP, James Gang, Rides Again, and sat back and listened. Oh yes the warmth and smoothness were there alright along with the snap, crackle and pop but still it was bearable. Having many of the same titles on LP and CD I did some critical listening. This led me to conclude that digital was lacking the warmth and smoothness of the LP when converted from an analog master to digital format in both AAD and ADD. Digital was cold and harsh to my ears but deadly silent. No snap cracklet and pop. My old. Vintage 1977 TT got a second life as I used it more frequenly. In November 2017 I made the decision to build a basic analog only system as best I could afford. My gift to myself! I purchased an integrated which included a Phono stage and a mid priced TT along with a mid priced cartridge. Needless to say I am blown away by what I experience. I’m hearing details not heard since the 80s, the warmth and smoothness is back and my go to listening has changed from the convenience of digital to tediousness of analog. Tedious it is, gone are the full automatic TT, push a button and skip a track FFW, Repeat, etc. Gone also is the dreaded listeners fatigue. I am impressed with the development of turntable design since the 70s. I’m loving my music more than ever. My old LPs sound better than ever even with the occasional snap, crackle and pop.
Sure I still listen to digital. I favor those of DDD or HDCD which come really close or exceed my analog rig but the analog blows recordings AAD and ADD completely off the map. Still have to listen to them as I have accumulated far more CDs than LPs but I fail to get the same satisfaction.
I will say that there is a very distinct difference in perceived sound between my digital and analog systems. Both are very good at what they do.
This is also as short as I could make it and tells MY experience in a nutshell.

My audio evolution has come full circle I’m back to the beginning.

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