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Is a vinyl rig only worth it for oldies?

I have always been curious about vinyl and its touted superiority over digital, so I decided to try it for myself. Over the course of the past several years I bought a few turntables, phono stages, and a bunch of new albums. They sounded fine I thought, but didn't stomp all over digital like some would tend to believe.

It wasn't until I popped on some old disk that I picked up used from a garage sale somewhere that I heard what vinyl was really about: it was the smoothest, most organic, and 3d sound that ever came out of my speakers. I had never heard anything quite like it. All of the digital I had, no matter how high the resolution, did not really come close to approaching that type of sound.

Out of the handful of albums I have from the 70s-80s, most of them have this type of sound. Problem is, most of my music and preferences are new releases (not necessarily in an audiophile genre) or stuff from the past decade and these albums sounded like music from a CD player but with the added noise, pops, clicks, higher price, and inconveniences inherent with vinyl. Of all the new albums I bought recently, only two sounded like they were mastered in the analog domain.

It seems that almost anything released after the 2000's (except audiophile reissues) sounded like music from a CD player of some sort, only worse due to the added noise making the CD version superior. I have experienced this on a variety of turntables, and this was even true in a friend's setup with a high end TT/cart.

So my question is, is vinyl only good for older pre-80s music when mastering was still analog and not all digital?
solman989
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rauliruegas
13,103 posts
 
Dear Atmasphere: +++++ " Raul was suggesting that the sound of the LP is distorted compared to an analog tape and that is not the case.... " +++++

IMHO this statement coming from you makes no sense to me, maybe I'm wrong.

So are you saying that what is in this link of what I posted is free of distortions?:

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?eanlg&1340176293&openflup&45&4#45

and that is only part of the whole " distortions " created through the LP playback process, artifacts as you said it.

I think that subjectivity is not always enough to make judgements, I think you are a person technical oriented and through this thread dialogue I can read almost only your subjectivity in the subject.

IMHO you have all the skills and tools to make a great favor to the audio community if you take " the bull by its horns " making an objective analysis through measures of those LP playback generated distortions starting when the RIAA is generated in the recording process and compare it against that master tape before the RIAA eq. and in the other side makind the same at digital level not only with a CD but more specific with a DVDA ( 24/192 ). In both cases using the best hardaware and in both cases fulfilling each alternative needs.

What we hear on both mediums is not my point/subject but what in reality is appening " down there ".

I like both mediums but that's is not the point.

Regards and enjoy the music,
R.
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mapman
22,396 posts
 
Atmasphere,

Let's put the vinyl/digital debate on teh shelf for a moment.

Do you find any digital enjoyable when you hear it played on your gear? How about other gear?

If you see any value at all with digital on your gear, my advice would be to ride that wave for what its worth to open up new markets for your gear in addition to catching the big one with vinyl.
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tdaudio
201 posts
 
One reason new releases dont sound as good is the compression that is put in during the mastering process.

Here is a Rolling Stone article on it.

http://web.archive.org/web/20080724194200/http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/17777619/the_death_of_high_fidelity

Here is Wikipedia page on loudness wars. There is a bunch of interesting links at the bottom.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war

It should be noted that not all new releases employ drastic compression. On a good TT rig you can tell. I bought the Foo Fighters "Wasting Light" and it sounds like crap. Sorry to say that but compared many other recent releases it is bad. It sounds like it has the compression issue.

TD
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mapman
22,396 posts
 
It would not surprise me if vinyl is affected by "loudness wars" pretty much the same as digital. The record companies do what they do for a reason....to try to sell more records (or CDs). I doubt that most have the tiny purist audiophile community on their radar screen, although I do not doubt they will use the trendy buzz about the superiority of vinyl to help make a sales pitch no doubt.

I have not heard good things in general about recent vinyl record quality and have not bought a single "new" recording on vinyl. I have thousands of vintage albums though and growing rapidly whenever I encounter good used vinyl for reasonable cost.
chadeffect
586 posts
 
This is a tricky subject. Tricky because there are so many variables.

But all things being equal we are still screwed! This is because there is usually a different master for vinyl and another for the digital master. This is because of the recording level and EQ that can be squeezed on to digital formats.

We are suffering a limiting or compression war to get the most level out at the mastering process. This usually cuts the peaks in the waveform so you can get more on. Many pop records if you look at the wave form is almost ruler flat at 0db to use every last bit.

I wouldn't want to start the old analogue vs digital war, but they both have their pluses and minuses. Vinyl has a nice sound. But it is a coloration. Digital apart from brick wall filters has less colouration & massive signal to noise ratio compared to vinyl. The uber samples rates available today are capable of much better quality if only due to less signal path and processes in the production.

But to drive eveyone mad at the end of the day it's down to the recording and your gear.

The great things I have heard on vinyl (layering, depth, naturalness) I have heard on digital too. So therefore the prize goes to...
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