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

mikeydee

... a big part of music, especially classical music, is dynamics. A composer writes markings in the score to play a passage either loud or soft or in between in varying degrees. The dynamics are a very important part of written music.

That's very true, but it's only half of it. There are dynamics that may not be part of the score itself, such as the "attack" of a note as a bow glances across a string, or the sharp leading edge of a horn note. That's a large part of what separates the great players from the merely technically competent ones.

This is not a big issue in rock or jazz, since most tunes are played with the same level of dynamics.

Not so. In particular, the best rock takes advantage of huge dynamics, e.g. Pink Floyd, Dire Straits. Give a listen to Paul Simon's Graceland on a big system. And rock typically relies on amplified instruments, so you can have the range between that and the gentlest guitar and soft vocals.

I don't see how the process of cutting a recording onto a vinyl disk can capture the whole range of dynamics from the original master the way that digital can. If I am wrong about this, please tell me how.

A properly made LP can have explosive dynamics. While digital has a wider potential dynamic range, the music almost never requires it.

So, you can make a digital recording of what comes out of the phono stage, and then play that recording through the same system.  If the ear can’t tell the difference then it would seem that the digital format can accurately capture and reproduce the sounds produced upstream of the phono out. 
Is that true?

If that is true, then the digital capture can be compared to the digital master used to make the vinyl in the first place. Now you can make a filter to put in downstream of your digital source. 
Someone must have tried this already?  With any success?

We can make digital relatively on par with some analog system....The truth is there is no perfect conditions to conclude the debate...


The true microdynamic of timbre playing by a pianist to be perceived by the listener in the theater and in his room alike need more than the choice of a turntable or of a dac...

There is NO perfect recording of the timbre event by a microphone to begin with....What is lacking must be recreated by compensation in the acoustic conditions of the listener room...

There exist a partial recreation, a partial translation, in the listener room of the acoustic conditions where the instrument were imperfectly recorded... This is the fundamental factor, with a dac or with a turntable...

How my actual system and room, whatever digital or analog, will let me perceive at the best possible level the timbre of the instrument playing ?

Most dont seems to understand that, in the turntable camp or in the dac boat....

There is no reproduction in the act of recording ONLY a translation with a loss.... The recreation in your room  is not the original lived event with a digital files or with a vinyl but only a translation.....


The microphone choices and locations are the limitation imposed, not the analog recording method or the digital recording method....The microphone is like a speaker in reverse function.....

The recording microphones impose a trade-off....This imposition of limitation by the type chosen and his locations is ABSOLUTE for analog or vinyl.....The source of the recording are not the musician playing in the theater it is the recording microphone itself....

bluemoodriver40 posts01-22-2021 1:22pmSo, you can make a digital recording of what comes out of the phono stage, and then play that recording through the same system.  If the ear can’t tell the difference then it would seem that the digital format can accurately capture and reproduce the sounds produced upstream of the phono out.
Is that true?

If that is true, then the digital capture can be compared to the digital master used to make the vinyl in the first place. Now you can make a filter to put in downstream of your digital source.
Someone must have tried this already?  With any success?

It is true.

There are a bunch of functions that would need to be incorporate including mixing channels to increase crosstalk, adding noise that has to also include the compression/decompression from RIA, etc.  Lots of people have played with this,


If you want the full analog chain equivalent there are plug-ins that simulate specific tape machines.