Analogue from Digital

To be more specific about my own conundrum. I generally prefer vinyl. I have a number of recordings on both CD and vinyl where the analogue is so obviously better, it's almost a joke (compare, for example, the 2019 Blue Note/Solid State vinyl rendering of Chick Corea's "Now He Sings, Now He Sobs" v. the CD version). That said, I find that so many vinyl pressings these days are marred in some way (especially pressings of Blue Note recordings, unfortuantely), and it's a pain to send so many LPs back. Plus, they cost more. Plus, the uncertain benefits of vinyl pressings from digitally recorded and mastered albums, i.e., the vast majority of recordings these days. Plus the fact that vinyl requires extra TLC. I just wonder whether it's worth bothering with vinyl, unless I already possess good information about the recording and pressing.

I know just what you mean. It is why I hardly ever mess with modern pressings. If you want to listen to a lot of different music, especially new, give up and stream it. If you want to listen to really good music, really good recordings, and with the very best sound quality, then search out the best vintage vinyl and accept that used is the tradeoff for better.    

I don't play music for background while puttering around doing other stuff, all my listening is high quality sit and do nothing but. So this is an easy one for me, and I go even further and buy a very few Hot Stampers because the sound is to die for even though I could easily buy five or ten perfectly decent records for the cost of one Hot Stamper. Last night listening to the 1812 I know I made the right choice. I also no there is no new music out there can touch it. But there is plenty of "new to me" old music that good. So why mess with new?

Unless the mastering is radically different between the vinyl and digital release, the vinyl version will always be worse than the digital version.

First, you are listening to a recording of whatever DAC they happen to use in the pressing process. It may be a decent pro dac (who knows?) but it may not be as good as many of the dacs used by members of this forum.
It then goes through a preamplifier, is EQ'd to apply the RIAA curve, further EQ'd to manage bass overload, stamped into a record blank, reverse EQ'd using the RIAA curve in your phono preamp, played back with wow and flutter, inner groove distortion, surface noise and tracking error from your stylus. Every one of those steps introduces exponentially more distortion. There is no way that playback of the same digital file without any of those additive distortions on a decent DAC will not sound better.

Let me be clear. I love vinyl - it seems to be the best way we have to preserve analog recordings in a durable commercial format, and it sounds remarkably good given its inherent limitations. I also prefer vinyl to digital for analog recordings. It seems to retain a greater sense of "presence" and realism than digital, despite these obvious limitations. Vinyl is probably 80% of my listening. But for digital recordings, going straight to the source will always sound better.

Yes, there is. or should i way, there are.For one thing, and some will rail at this, it will have analog colorations that many may like.


Second,it will have had its digital-to-analog conversion done in a professional studio, in theory with very good and well set up (grounding , powering, proper impedances, whatever) rather than whatever you bought and hooked up.

Third, its not inconceivable that it will have been re-equalized somewhat. Vinyl these days are specialty products, aimed to two groups - the "retro" group and audiophiles who are not happy with digital for whatever reason.

So sure. Whether it is more accurate (but what measure we could fill many pages) is a totally different question, but not one you asked.

Even with digital recordings and/or mastering, vinyl CAN sound much more analog than the same recording / mastering. And just because a record was "mastered from the original analog tapes" doesn't mean that it will sound more natural (can we agree that that's what "more analog" basically means?).

I recently reviewed a recent reissue of Big Star's debut, remastered from the OG tapes right in Memphis, and I compared it to my 80's European digitally remastered. The 80's digitally remastered version was head and shoulders better (although still not great). So much for 2 of the biggest "rules" in vinyl (that would be the country of origin rule and the "must be from an analog tape source" rule).

If you're interested you can check out the review here.