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General Asylum General audio topics that don't fit into specific categories. |
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General Asylum General audio topics that don't fit into specific categories. |
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In Reply to: How do you measure resolution? (the kind vinyl does better than CD) posted by Goober58 on April 10, 2014 at 10:53:18:
So far all the talk I see bandied about suggests that resolution is a subjective term. There are of course the specs:
You can suggest resolution in the digital world with bits and scan frequencies- generally speaking the higher the better.
With analog its a different animal- bandwidth, noise, distortion all play a role (and BTW, in a lathe cut you have more bandwidth and lower distortion that you do with digital, although in practical terms more noise as the phono reproducer will be the primary noise generator and the limit is about -90 db or so). This is because noise and distortion will block detail due to the ear's masking principle.
People are often surprised at how low the distortion can be on an LP; let's put it this way- its impossible to overload the cutter amplifiers. By the time they make about 10% of full power they will have toasted the cutterhead. And the cutterhead can make nice clean cuts that no cartridge would ever have a hope of tracking long before its overloaded.
I can't say for certain that the things I've listed are indeed the whole story- for example although you loose phase information with less bandwidth, things can still sound pretty good if it only goes to 20KHz before it rolls. We can put 30KHz on our lathe cuts easily enough and it plays back fine on a modest turntable. 20Hz on the bottom end isn't the limit either. The mechanical resonance of the pickup is the limiter there.
Consequently I go for 'subjective experience' even though the specs favor analog by about 70%. I just don't think the specs that we use today tell the whole story. If they did, we would be able to tell how a product sounds just by looking at the paper. But that is a topic for a whole 'nuther thread!
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Follow Ups
- That's a really good question! - Ralph 13:05:38 04/10/14 (2)
- RE: That's a really good question! - Inmate51 03:17:03 04/11/14 (1)
- Yes they do. - Ralph 08:25:58 04/11/14 (0)
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