2. analog
  3. 160855-86984

vinyl versus digital redux

Has anyone compared the sound of vinyl with the sound of digital converted from a vinyl intermediary ?

I am referring to 'rips' of vinyl made with high end, high quality vinyl playback systems, with
conversion to high resolution digital.
I find it nearly impossible to distinguish the two results.
The digital rip of a vinyl record sounds identical...or very nearly so...to direct playback of the vinyl.

If one has 'experienced' the foregoing, one might question why digital made without the intermediary of vinyl sounds so different from vinyl.   A detective story ?

We are talking about vinyl made by ADC (analog to digital conversion) of an amplified microphone signal and re-conversion to analog for output to the record cutting lathe, or from analog tape recording of an amplified microphone signal, and then....as above...via ADCl and back to analog for output to the cutting lathe.

Of course vinyl can be and is 'cut' (pressings made from 'stamper' copies the 'master' cut in lacquer) without digital intermediary.  Such practice is apparently uncommon, and ?? identified as such by the 'label' (production)

Has anyone compared vinyl and high resolution digital (downloads) albums offered by the same 'label' of the same performance ?  Granted, digital versus vinyl difference should diminish with higher digital resolution.   Sound waves are sine waves....air waves do not 'travel' in digital bits.    A digital signal cannot be more than an approximation of a sine wave, but a closer approximation as potential digital resolution (equating to bit depth times sampling frequency) increases.

If vinyl and digital well made from vinyl intermediary sound almost identical, and If vinyl and digital not made via vinyl intermediary sound quite different, what is the source of this difference ? 

Could it reside....I'll skip the sound processing stages (including RIAA equalization)...in the electro-mechanical process imparting the signal to the vinyl groove ?

Is there analogy with speaker cone material and the need for a degree of self-damping ?
Were self-damping not to some extent desirable, would not all speaker cones, from tweeter to sub-woofer, be made of materials where stiffness to weight ratio was of sole importance ?

Thanks for any comments.
seventies
mijostyn's avatar
mijostyn
8,570 posts
 
This is sort of laughable. I have the equipment and use it everyday. Works fine. I would think with the system I have problems or differences would be as obvious as they can get. Of course, depending on the hearing of one person (in this case me) to make an evaluation on anything is dangerous. But I think it is safe to assume that a record and a 24/192 file of that record are close enough in sound quality such that there are not glaring differences and a large percentage of us can't hear the difference. 
seventies OP
67 posts
 
Do lp's made contemporaneously with analog tape recordings, in the decades before availability of digital recording at resolutions exceeding 16/44.5, offer better sound on playback than high resolution transfers made from those analog tapes ?

Thanks for any opinions and answers.
orpheus10
8,668 posts
 

When you go to a movie, can you tell that you are looking at separate frames of a still picture?
orpheus10
8,668 posts
 

If everyone will permit me, I would like to share with you how overjoyed I am with the improvements in my rig; same TT but new cartridge and NOS tubes for the phono. Of course these same improvements are heard on computer playback, but let's disregard that for the moment.


Records that I was neutral on, and hardly played for many years, now sound quite interesting. Sorry, this has nothing to do with the subject at hand, just my elated joy with the improvement from something less than a monumental cost.
audio2design
1,351 posts
 
The drift reduction again is for sync. The clock input on a modern DAC is marketing. The part cost for a clock suitable for 145db+ SNR is 10's of dollars into the low 100's in low volume integrated into a unit and less high volume. USB or networked DAC has no need of synchronization.  Just like in the studio there is more potential for noise and jitter on the clock I/F than using an external master clock.

Generally 1/2 two track is remote work in small settings. Even concert and concert hall we wouldn't use that except for check work.  I have worked with 24 and 16, and all forms of digital in settings and with equipment where nuances are readily apparent. 30 IPS with good track spacing properly setupis very good but still noticeable. Professional 24/192 is transparent. You may not like the sound but it is transparent.

More to discover