Article: "Spin Me Round: Why Vinyl is Better Than Digital"


Article: "Spin Me Round: Why Vinyl is Better Than Digital"

I am sharing this for those with an interest. I no longer have vinyl, but I find the issues involved in the debates to be interesting. This piece raises interesting issues and relates them to philosophy, which I know is not everyone's bag. So, you've been warned. I think the philosophical ideas here are pretty well explained -- this is not a journal article. I'm not advocating these ideas, and am not staked in the issues -- so I won't be debating things here. But it's fodder for anyone with an interest, I think. So, discuss away!

https://aestheticsforbirds.com/2019/11/25/spin-me-round-why-vinyl-is-better-than-digital/amp/?fbclid...
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However, it is purely wrong to continue the belief that it provides a more accurate playback than modern digital. It does not.
I think that digital can be on par with vinyl, but you are too harsh... Accurate is one thing, naturalness of timbre another, and the naturalness of timbre implies more factors than only accuracy of dac....

The complexity of this problem cannot be reduced to harsh choices...For example you cannot recreate the recording room atmosphere even with a good dac or turntable in a bad listening room and in a house with a too high noise floor and with too much vibrations and resonance in the different components....

I think like you that digital is not under vinyl at all nowadays, thanks to this technology... But analog cannot be dismiss by the back of the hand... For most ordinary listener, the complex intricacies of the factors imbricated makes any dogmatic affirmation only that: dogmatic...

Musical sound is not reducible to electronic designed numbers, we must add many other factors in the equation....

An audio system exist in a room and in a house for some ears for example, not mainly on his blueprint measured design table....

A working audio system must be designed before playing, but it must be embedded somewhere in some way to be judged by some ears....

The embeddings ways ( mechanical electrical and acoustical)can transform ANY system to another level completely or limiting it in a destructive way.... This is the reason why reviews are anecdotal stuff only except treated statistically, and it is also the reason why judging audio system only by the design measured numbers is not enough at all...



«Reality is not the iceberg peak»-Anonymus

«Reality is not even the complete iceberg with the ocean»-Myself

« Reality is everything, specially what is not "real"»-Groucho Marx  
Its pretty simple isn’t it?  A record or analogue signal has a complete soundwave whereas digital is bits of that soundwave, no?



No, actually it does not. It either sounds like what was picked by the microphone or it does not. High res digital (most digital now), plays back a more accurate representation of what was captured. That is just the way it is. You may not like it, but assigning terms like "naturalness of timbre" that are factually untrue does not change that.


mahgister3,873 posts12-29-2020 1:29pmI think that digital can be on par with vinyl, but you are too harsh... Accurate is one thing, naturalness of timbre another, and the naturalness of timbre implies more factors than only accuracy of dac....

Let go of this notion that "analogue" has a complete signal. It does not. As soon as you add noise, you no longer have the signal. You have a signal and noise, and since you have no way to remove that noise and leaving only the signal, then no, there is nothing complete about what is on a record, analog tape, or similar.


b_limo1,929 posts12-29-2020 2:29pmIts pretty simple isn’t it?  A record or analogue signal has a complete soundwave whereas digital is bits of that soundwave, no?

What is COMPLETE is the analog OR digital signals + their increased or decreased recording noise floor which are listened to in a room with his own increased or decreased noise floor....

GENERIC digital or analog signals must be listen to in SPECIFIC environment and they are recorded in SPECIFIC environment too...

No theoretic analysis can replace ears experience...

Then is digital superior to analog? No...

Is Analog superior to digital ? No...

They are two different, interesting, competiting medium then  that can be chosen by our preference in a particular house/room/system embeddings...

Or they can be chosen by a recording company and this company is not made of fool that negate engineering ; TACET  " tubes only"  recording methods for example... I like their way to deliver timbre naturalness, especially of chord instrument like violins...It is possible to hear the difference even with a dac like i have in my system....

Most music is immersed now in a complex analog/digital chain.... Then.....