Home Music Lane

It's all about the music, dude! Sit down, relax and listen to some tunes.

[ Follow Ups ] Thread: [ Display  All  Email ] [ Music Lane ]
[ Alert Moderator ] [ Edit ] [ Delete ]

Vinyl Schminyl

216.52.215.232

You know what? I'm fed up with reading posts about the sonic wonders of vinyl over CDs. Don't you vinyl lovers have ears? Or are you just hooked on the sound of ticks and pops and the degradation of high frequencies and added distortion as the stylus tracks into the inner grooves of an lp? You probably think VHS is heads above DVD.

As a former recording engineer, whose specialty was disk mastering (Neumann, Scully-Westrex), I am continually amazed at the number of you out there who refuse to embrace the tremendous advances in digital recording technology (particularly in the last couple of years), and go on and on touting the warmth or sound stage or dynamic range of an lp over the CD. Granted, early CDs released in the late 70's and early 80's tended to be harsh on the ears. Even so, my first CD player, which cost $400 and I'm sure had a lousy sampling rate by today's standards, sounded absolutely incredible compared to vinyl. Weren't some of you blown away by just the fade outs to silence between songs, not to mention by the clarity of the music? Prior to the advent of the compact disc and digital multitrack recorders, the only digital phase of the recording process was the 2-track mixdown. This resulted in no improvement whatsover to the final product, the lp, because lacquers, acetates, and vinyl were all petroleum products. And ever since the first OPEC oil crunch hit in the early 1970's, record manufacturers saved money by reconstituting vinyl from old records from which they didn't even bother to punch out the center label section. Thus, we played new records made from old vinyl and paper. No wonder they sounded like crap. Obviously, today there are much higher qualities of vinyl available, as well as half speed mastering, and other technologies to produce superior lps.

And don't get me wrong… I prefer certain "old" technologies and equipment where older really is better. For instance, I listen to tube Mac gear biamped through Altec 604e's. But I wouldn't connect a turntable to them. Are you vinyl-heads simply stuck in the past? Do you like 78's even better for their ultimate frequency response? I do think that living in the past (pre-nuclear/terrorist/corporate greed/overpopulation/global warming/on and on) has its appeal and were it possible, would be a good idea – but not when it comes to analog vs. digital.

IMnotsoHO, nothing - and I mean NOTHING - has revolutionized the quality of sound reproduction during my 52 year lifetime (so far) as the migration from analog (vinyl) to digital (CD)... except maybe stereo in 1958 - that was pretty cool, too.

There... I finally got it off my chest.

This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:
  Herbie's Audio Lab  

Topic - Vinyl Schminyl - Twodawgz 13:58:29 07/10/02 (101)
You can not post to an archived thread.

[ Top Top of Page ] [ Contact Us ] [ Support/Wish List ] [ Copyright © 2024, Audio Asylum, all rights reserved ]
[ General ] [ Speakers ] [ Tubes ] [ Vinyl ] [ Digital ] [ Hi-Rez ] [ Video Asylum ] [ Cables ] [ Tweaks/DIY ] [ Music ] [ Films ]