Exactly Why Vinyl Isn't The Future of Audiophilia

[danvu]

I dont want to put up a fight here. Just interested in hearing others' opinions regarding this topic
http://hometheaterreview.com/exactly-why-vinyl-isnt-the-future-of-audiophilia/

For me, I would prefer digital formats. They are much easier to manage, store, and take a lot less space. Still, high res enough for me in CD or lossless formats.

 

[Dallas]

The audible difference between the two isn't debatable. I have both digital and vinyl. I have upgraded my dac to the Ayre QB-9 and all the cables are cardas, and a clear audio performance with maestro mm cart. I love the simplicity and ease of digital, but when I want fidelity I definitely go vinyl. Vinyl is just way more real sounding, granted its harder to put a good analog system together, the rewards from the effort are just much more than digital.

I have a bunch of 24bit/96khz and vinyl is just high res and more organic in its presentation.

 

[Gordon Gray]

Less filling. No, tastes great.

With all due respect to both sides of the aisle, I think we've beaten this horse to death.

Having said that, have fun. Kinda like watching Groundhog Day.

Again. And again. And again.

GG

PS: There is no right answer to this question. It is all purely subjective.

 

[timm]

Come on gordon! Dont b such a buzz kill! Hahaha

I dont know isnt digital moving? Here is my 2 cents i was vinyl before digital i got a very nice denon cd player in the mid 80s here is what i like about digital and i still recall doing comparisons to my vinyl rig at the time...a thorens td145 w an audio technica cart vinyl was not as dynamic quiet passages were not quiet maybe the dynamics of the cd were not as real sounding as the vinyl but i liked it . The thing that got me was the quiet passages then to have a recording not go bad because of pops and clicks ...or not having to return an album several times because it was warped or came with its own noise right out of the shrink wrap ... these were the things that drew me to cd

What i liked about vinyl was the experience. Holding the cover putting the needle down the smell of the record itself. Wierd i know.

 

[projectormovielover]

If we had this debate before then what was the conclusion?

Digital it unlimited and ever expanding so it's the future as the possibilities are endless. Just imagine the quality of downloads were going to get our ears on in the next 10 years

 

[Bernard]

With all due respect to both sides of the aisle, I think we've beaten this horse to death.

PS: There is no right answer to this question. It is all purely subjective.

If we had this debate before then what was the conclusion?

What Gordon said.

 

[Dallas]

I have been playing guitar for 22 years now and something that technology hasn't been able to do through digital is keep the organic real sound an instrument makes in the room where the distortion agreeably is higher on vinyl but is more like a real instrument, digital hasn't been able to break that natural barrier

 

[Hocky]

Digital, even plain old red book format, has more dynamic range and broader frequency coverage than any vinyl combo. That is my only comment on the subject.

 

[Gordon Gray]

Hi Dallas,

Terms like "organic" and "real" are, by nature, very subjective.

Way too many variables in any given system to generalize about which media accomplishes what any good audio system should do.

That is allowing the individual listener to emotionally connect with the music.

I'm glad analogue provides you with that "magic". As does my digital system for me.

Projector, there was no conclusion because there isn't any.

GG

 

[amey01]

PS: There is no right answer to this question. It is all purely subjective.

That's the sole reason why the discussion continues!

What I find kinda funny is that people synonomise "analogue" with "vinyl". haha.

Vinyl is a crappy consumer format. It is compromised. Audiophiles aren't supposed to like compromise. If you want "analogue magic", look to reel tape!

PS. I like LP too, but I'm never going to spend huge amounts on a compromised, consumer format. I'd rather (one day) find a nice reel deck.

 

[Bevensee]

Music quality today has absolutely nothing to do with the potential dynamic range of any given format. Why is it that the average dynamic range of 50 year old vinyl records is several dB higher than the average dynamic range of CD's today?

The mastering, of cause. i have always preferred vinyl. I bought my first CD player when I was 15 in 1989. I was somewhat surprised that I found my comparably priced record player to give more satisfying sound. Trough all my system upgrades since, this has been true. But surprisingly digital does not seem to close the gap. If anything, As I have moved up in price, vinyl's lead has increased.

When I buy new releases on vinyl today, very often a CD is thrown in for free. I have never found the CD to sound better. Never. The CD often sounds compressed. Probably because it is.

And this is exactly why we need a format that is clumsy, un-portable and so forth. How long did it take before the record industry realized that for them it makes more sense to master for car stereos and ipods and not for high dynamic range craving geeks like us? Why does the same CD sound worse and worse with each remaster? Who cares about the theoretical dynamic range of CD, when the music is mastered with a dynamic range of 4dB just to make it sound louder?

Portability is the killer of good sound, and any format that lives from portability is part of the disease.

 

[Hocky]

Neither format nor portability is not the reason that music today is compressed.

 

[Dallas]

So as to original post of, wanting to hear other people's opinions....we don't need any red book quotes or anything like that :I

Bevensee, I experience the same thing. Like I said, maybe it's the natural distortion as opposed to digital distortion, like tubes vs SS, I find that vinyl sounds better at equal dollars.

I have a clear audio performance with maestro cart and a ayre qb-9 dac, both high end peices but still vinyl to me has survived the digital era and continues to survive, because it offers something digital doesn't, therefore it will always serve a purpose, I dont pretend it will ever be the dominating media, but it will always serve a purpose for s desired musical presentation

 

[danvu]

What about the wearing of vinyls the article mentioned and I heard people talked about, that subsequent plays will never be as good as the first time? Does that matter much? Does it mean if you really like an album, you can't really listen to it over and over because you dont want to wear it down? Seems like a dumb question, but I dont own a turntable and vinyls so I dont know and would like to hear your experiences.

I heard a vinyl record and compared it with a CD at someone's system. I agree that it had a more analog/organic sound and feeling of the music and mostly in the mid range. However, it seemed like the top and bottom ends were not as extended as in CD to me. The guy had all kind of tools to wash /clean his vinyls and yet there were still a lot of pops and cracks while playing the record and it was annoying to me. And he had to do the clean very time he play a record. It's nice but it's just not worth the trade off going thru all hassles for me .

 

[Bevensee]

Regarding the wear of vinyl, I seriously think the article missed the target. CDs are much more sensitive to wear than vinyl, DVD even worse, and blueray even worse again. I have LP's that are 50 years old and still sounds great. regarding digital sotorage, how many of you can access data on a disc that is even 20 years old? Did any of you ever have you record player crash and loose all of your LPs? Me neither!

regarding the digital vs. analogue distortion, I must admit that digital is getting a lot better, albeit at a cost. The problem is that digital distorts at low level, whereas vinyl distorts at high level, the latter being more similar to our ears. Even today, relatively expensive DACs and CD players can have more than 1 % distortion at -60 dB. And usually this will not be nice and friendly second harmonic. But it has gotten a lot better in recent years.

How many here think they will be able to play a blueray disc bought today 50 years from now? Access the files on your harddisc? How about an LP?

OK, some of us will consider ourselves happy if we're even able to play anything 50 years from now...;-)

 

[Gordon Gray]

Beven,

Yes I have CD's that are twenty years old and they play just fine.

Regarding your generalization in Post 11 that CD's have a 4DB dynamic range, that's totally misleading.

I have many CD's that have very impressive dynamic range and this points to the problems associated with this type of discussion.

Advocates of one medium, on either side, will provide inaccurate, indefensible information / generalizations and use it as a justification to support their own personal tastes.

Also, your statement about "storage life" of digital data is entirely speculative.

All I ask is that everyone forget the hyperbolic, self justifying rhetoric so as to maintain some sense of credence to this discussion.

GG

 

[Bernard]

A few days ago I could not help but think of a parallel between vinyl and CD: while playing a CD I had played many times before, I heard what sounded like a stylus stuck in a groove. I've had other CD's crap out on me the same way (there are not too many, but they are there). The more things change the more they stay the same.

 

[Gordon Gray]

Hi Bernard,

Two possibilities.

Your laser needs replacing or (more likely) you need to clean the CD. Try Optrix. Cheap and effective.

Gordon

 

[amey01]

Hi Bernard,

Two possibilities.

Your laser needs replacing or (more likely) you need to clean the CD. Try Optrix. Cheap and effective.

Gordon

Alternatively, you no doubt can still rip the CD. Then you can forget crappy CD mechanisms altogether.

I look after my CDs, however I did have one or two "accidents" over the years. Each and every one of those few CDs ripped perfectly, and checksums correctly on Accuraterip.

 

[Spike]

Ok. I can't resist to chime in...

regarding digital sotorage, how many of you can access data on a disc that is even 20 years old?

I still have my CDs from the mid 1980s which play fine today.

Did any of you ever have you record player crash and loose all of your LPs? Me neither!

If you're being picky about losing all of your LPs, how about being able to play all of your collection AFTER someone broke into your house and stole your CDs or LPs. This happened to my friend and he still has access to ALL of his music collection which was backed up at in the cloud! He started with Amazon S3 and recently moved to Google Drive. I bet you cannot do that without going digital!

OK, some of us will consider ourselves happy if we're even able to play anything 50 years from now...;-)

If your music collection is backed up in the cloud, you should be able to play them back years from now!