2. analog
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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
chadeffect
586 posts
 
Rauliruegas,

I completely agree. Even though I have fallen in love with an old SET for my playback!

In the past we had to cover up the harsh reality of the sound that came out of DACs at the time, never mind the quality of the recording/mastering etc.

The lastest DACs have a purity that needs no help. For Hifi purposes, I believe, even though I have slightly fallen from the path, that you should playback exactly what is on the source. i.e the system should add nothing.

Now I do realise that in practise some recordings need some "help", but good and great recordings need none. The problem is it is so subjective. Hense a site like this with many opinions on what is best. Let alone an understanding of what the record you are listening to really sounded like. As for most people they only ever heard it on a couple of systems which could be adding or taking away all sorts of elements.

Imagine listening to hip hop on a lowther with a 300b amp or even a quad 57 and quad 2. You would only hear half the record! So imagine having an opinion about the bass if that was your reference!
peterayer
1,382 posts
 
Raul, are you still designing a tonearm for analog playback? And do you now prefer digital to your analog and all of those MM cartridges?
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tdaudio
201 posts
 
Mapman, I got back into vinyl 9 years ago because I feared that high res digital would evolve slowly. Which it has and not for technology reasons. Big record companies drag their feet because as you know they are afraid of unauthorized copies and high res digital makes that easier. I believe that is one reason why redbook CD is a compromised format.

There is a lot of stuff I can buy now on vinyl that is not available via high res digital. Plus all the vinyl you can find used. 192k/24bit recordings are expensive and rare. I don't know what the sales figures for high res digital (IMO that would have to be at least 96k/24bit) are but I think it is even more of a nich market than vinyl. Honestly, if anyone knows please tell.

Its kind of useless to just talk about vinyl vs digital with out breaking it down. Getting into vinyl from scratch will cost some money which sucks since I think that keeps people out of it. But you don't have to be rich to put together a TT rig that will consistantly beat red book CD. But it will take money and time to get the most out of vinyl. And if you are determined a high level TT set up will distance itself from CD.

Going forward, there is no doubt that digital will surpass vinyl LP. But it will take a major shift on the powers selling music for that to happen. If that happened and there was a standard for 192k/24bit or higher then that would be a sea change IMO. IF you could buy that kind of quality at current CD prices it would all but kill the vinyl market. Its possible now but why does it not happen?

TD
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rauliruegas
13,114 posts
 
Dear Peterayer: Yes, I'm still on that tonearm design, in fact is almost finished.

As I posted I'm in love with LPs but that fact does not means that I recognize the digital superiority and that I like digital medium too.
Truer to the recording is the name of the game and in this regards digital is way way nearer than analog.

What I want to know is why when the LPs/analog is so heavely faulty I like it so much as you like it too.

I'm not married with any hardware/software: I'm married with the music!!!!.

Regards and enjoy the music,
R.
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tdaudio
201 posts
 
Raul, if you recognize the "digital superiority" why not focus on a digital prouduct?

I must say that want to be manufactures make some of the most interesting posts on audiogon. Its always a position of the expert but yet there is usually little to show as a sucessful product.

I am not rooting against you, I welcome new options.

Just waiting for some one who talks the talk to do the walk.

Enjoy the music.

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