Vinyl vs. top-notch digital

mikelavigne

... if digital people think it can compete with 1/2" tape, i have to laugh, that is just ignorant ...

It’s not clear what you’re saying here. Are you claiming that the best analog tape is technically superior to even first-class digital recorders?

the phrase ’technically superior’ is a misnomer relative to our listening to music. on paper digital recorders do all sorts of magic tricks as far as dynamic range and bandwidth. and data on analog recorders misses the fact that analog recorders record data into the noise floor, whereas digital recorders have hard limits that cannot be really approached.

i claim that no digital recordings i’ve heard capture music like 1/2" tape and if you throw 30ips into it the delta is even greater.

here is a link to an interview with a well known recording engineer that talks to this issue and it’s real world consequences. scroll down toward the bottom;

https://www.stereophile.com/content/hdcd-keith-johnson-pflash-pflaumer-michael-ritter

this subject has been beat to death, stomped on and kicked dozens of times.

i have the highest level digital playback gear and daily compare the highest rez digital to vinyl and tape. the results are easily heard.

Absolutely Mike, it is the music that counts. Quality is secondary but it always helps. When it gets down to brass tacks it is the quality of the final end user material that counts and one magic thing about digital is that it does not deteriorate over time and generations unlike analog. So, although under the best circumstance analog sounds better this may not be true with the program sources we get. A great example of this is the telephone. Anybody remember what analog cell phones sounded like? Yuk, what a mess. There is no comparison to modern digital phones. 

mikelavigne

... on paper digital recorders do all sorts of magic tricks as far as dynamic range and bandwidth. and data on analog recorders misses the fact that analog recorders record data into the noise floor, whereas digital recorders have hard limits that cannot be really approached. i claim that no digital recordings i’ve heard capture music like 1/2" tape ... this subject has been beat to death, stomped on and kicked dozens of times. i have the highest level digital playback gear and daily compare the highest rez digital to vinyl and tape. the results are easily heard.

Understood. What you are doing is assessing the potential of digital and analog recording based on what other people say and record.

If you really want to understand the potential differences, I suggest you make your own recordings. For example, you might want to take one of your better analog recordings, dub it to digital, and then A/B the two. The results might surprise you. Then, do the reverse: Dub to analog an excellent recording you made first on digital. A/B the two.

I’m a fan of LP, by the way, and of analog tape.

been there, done that. multiple times, in multiple ways.

i have 800-900 needle drops. these are 2xdsd vinyl rips of my vinyl i have on my NAS. play them often. and hundreds of digital tape transfers at various hirez levels i can compare to the vinyl transfers.

then there was the recording done in my room back in 2008 where pro audio guys dubbed a direct to disc record off my turntable and tried to get it to sound as good as the source.

https://www.audaud.com/jun-fukamachi-at-steinway-take-2-toshiba-emi-direct-discfirst-impression-music/

try as they might, they could not capture the musical nuance of the vinyl on their state of the art digital recorders. i can dub vinyl with my tape deck that get’s it all. or dub my tape to another tape and get it all too. look at my system pages........

 https://systems.audiogon.com/systems/615

.......and you will see i’m set up to easily do just that any time.