Vinyl Asylum Welcome Licorice Pizza (LP) lovers! Setup guides and Vinyl FAQ.

---

[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] Thread: [ Display  All  Email ] [ Vinyl Asylum ]

---

[ Alert Moderator ]

---

RE: Yes and no. . . .

Posted by flood2 (A) on May 26, 2015 at 18:34:38

In Reply to: RE: Yes and no. . . . posted by David Smith on May 25, 2015 at 21:53:59:

You'll have to be more specific about what you disagree with. Digital recording has become the norm since the early 80s when LPs bearing the label "Digital Recording" first appeared on record sleeves. You comments about "accuracy" make even less sense especially with LPs today which are cut from a digital source and have gone through an additional D/A stage before the rest of the vinyl mastering process begins.
For now let's ignore digital recordings and the replay side of things and look at only what is stored in the grooves...

You mentioned the example of violin overtones and the OP mentioned brass instruments sounding "bad". I don't understand what is meant by "bad" in this context although I attempted to enquire if "bright" or "harsh" was meant.
Could you clarify in more detail what you mean by analogue having improved accuracy in reproduction of overtones and whether you consider LPs cut in the 50s and 60s to also be superior to digital equivalents? You may be aware that the original recordings were often limited to 15kHz. I have many jazz LPs from that era where the sleeve proudly proclaims a flat response up to "15 000 cps". Would you consider FM Radio to be sufficient in reproducing violin overtones? Again the bandwidth is limited to 15kHz to allow for stereo.

What should be discussed is the relative amplitude of the harmonics relative to the fundamental and whether any additional (undesirable)components are added (and what the relative amplitudes are), NOT the claimed number of harmonics that can be reproduced. The cutting process of an LP is very bandwidth limited on inner grooves (by necessity) and non-linear so the relative amplitudes of the harmonics will be altered during the process and additional IM components are added.

With a digital copy from the analogue master, the relative amplitude is going to remain approximately the same (allowing for the band-limiting analogue filter passband response depending on the bandwidth of the system), therefore the ratios of harmonics with respect to the corresponding fundamentals will be very similar; in which case the encoded signal will be closer to the master.

I am a musician myself so I understand very well what my instruments should sound like so I am just trying to compare the difference in what we are looking for in the reproduced sound. When I master CDs from my high resolution masters, they come out virtually indistinguishable to the source when listened to in isolation. Having said that, I can make them worse by choosing inappropriate levels of dither and noise shaping which will add spurious aharmonic tones to the signal! My LP transcriptions to CD sound indistinguishable from the source both subjectively and objectively via measurement.

My point is that much of the negatives heard in CD compared to a good LP are down to poor choices in the mastering (including dither and noiseshaping). When done properly, the digital version HAS to be more faithful to the master for the reasons given! For starters, once in the digital domain you don't add wow/flutter and you don't add spurious tones due to HF signal modulation from LF signals.

If your LP provides a technically better result than the CD, then the finger would point to your digital replay equipment being inferior to your analogue rig. From a playback perspective there is absolutely no basis to your claim assuming SOTA playback equipment for analogue and digital - cartridges typically give 15 to 20% harmonic distortion at 15k to 20kHz. That level of distortion may "sound" better to you, but don't pretend that it is more "accurate"!

Regards Anthony

"Beauty is Truth, Truth Beauty.." Keats

This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:

Schiit Audio

---

[ 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 ]

---