More convinced of analog than ever

02-06-09: Tketcham
So how were the presentations? Anything new and interesting?

In addition to the things I already mentioned, the front end in the desktop Magnepan room was very interesting. They had an Apple Mac iTunes server and a NanoPod docked in a Wadia iPod docking station. Both of these fed a PeachTree Audio integrated amp to make use of its DAC (it accepts USB) and its line stage. From there the signal was sent out to several outboard power amps to drive the little Maggie panels and floorstanding woofer module.

It was a great way to demonstrate how good an iPod can sound when a specialty DAC does the decoding. The NanoPod was loaded with a combination of 256 Kbs and lossless AIFF files.

I was quite taken by the musicality and resolution of the PeachTree's DAC, and also its linestage. At $1195 the Peachtree is a little gem, especially for a digital-based or digi/analog system with an external phono stage. Very nice unit and I would highly recommend it for a small system where 50 to 80wpc would do.

free recording AND playback? Digital recordings are inherently flawed. Even the best original digital recordings are dithered and filtered, omitting and filling in information of the original analogue soundwave because analogue to digital converters simply cannot capture non-bandlimited soundwaves that are complex like orchestral music. 30 IPS reel to reel never had this inherent problem of excluding spatial and minute information like minor changes frequencies of many instruments and voices.

Take these flawed digital recordings and then convert the digital signal back to analogue, and you have even more information missing, then filtered in by 1s and 0s.

By the way, no DAC in the world is almost without jitter. The Benchmark DAC1 is known to be one of the best at jitter rejection, and its measurements are still over 100ps (nowhere near "jitter-free"). The world-class Linn Klimax measures over 200ps.

Also, for anyone who thinks that the format doesn't matter much, have a listen to the SACD versions of great analogue recordings and then listen to them on vinyl. Use any $10K SACD player and any good $5K TT. If you think that the analogue system isn't more detailed, resolving, and doesn't have better 3-D imaging, and more life-like timbre, then you really should just listen to digital and not bother with this "debate" anymore.

For those of us who primarily listen to music that was originally recorded on master tape, vinyl delivers the best sound quality, period. Those of you who listen to newer recordings that are released simultaneously on digital and vinyl, then the differences will be subtler and will perhaps even favor digital because the original master recording was digital.

I was born in the digital era and never knew a world without computers, but pine for the days gone by when sound was not delivered to our ears in 1s and 0s.

Yesterday we had our annual record LP sales extravaganza here in Eugene, OR and there were a couple hundred people at any given time going for the vinyl in a single Hilton ballroom sized room. People of all ages.

Paid $1 to $15 for some real finds. There were far more people hunting thre vinyl bins than the CDs.

Vinyl will survive, it's now way past the original naysayers bedtime.

nice thread

I have a substantial vinyl front end and a modest but good digital front end. There is too much good music exclusive to each not to have both playback systems.

When I want to really feel the emotion and passion - the analog version and effort getting there is well worth it.

many kids are hip on vinyl, even spinning it on mediocre turntables because they like the sound more

I recall playing lps once and taping them to a Nakamichi in the 80's. The tapes sounded real nice. All my pristine vinyl is now played on a setup with minimal stress on the vinyl

when digital conversion / hard drive systems get affordable I'd be all in for recording my vinyl drops
getting them to high res ipods or a hard drive presentation and possibly taking a few hours off my cartridge. It also would allow me to pass on some of the vinyl that I'm not as attached to

a little too expensive and still under major refining on the digital storage end to get in now. it is evolving and lets hope they don't cut too many corners and still make it affordable for the audiophile

in the mean time I'll happily spin vinyl and people can laugh at me for being antiquated. the nuance and emotion of vinyl is there for the taking

I do not understand why audiophiles would want to "needledrop" their vinyl. Even the studio CD versions of some great master tape recordings are inferior to vinyl, so when you make your own conversion (with consumer-level ADCs) from vinyl to digital, you cannot possibly expect it to be good enough compared to vinyl --unless you have low standards.

A good engineer in a million-dollar studio, with million-dollar ADC and DAC set-ups, cannot match vinyl playback when he converts master tape recordings to CD. An average person "needledropping" vinyl onto digital is just amazingly low-fi.

The CD versions of most recordings should be far superior to "needledropping." After all, the CD versions at least come from the master tapes or second generation digital (or) analogue sources, being fed by the best ADC and DAC gear available.