Vinyl is not as bad as I expected.

[abdo123]

I just don't understand vinyl
Sounds less good than lossless streaming, costs a ton to buy all the albums you want , much less practical.
With streaming you have all the albums ever released in the palm of your hand for not much money.
But I guess it's like the Rolex vs Casio G-shock kind of thing.

I uploaded the loudness matched files in case you're curious, it does not sound less good than lossless streaming to be honest, just different.

Test - Google Drive

drive.google.com

 

[Galliardist]

Agreed in principle, sure. But I think "early music" is a special case - especially small ensembles - in that it seems composed for instruments that didn't have much dynamic variation. I have recorded "period instruments" and the VUs hardly moved, no matter what the players did. Players using modern instruments tend to imitate the same un-variation.

But any modern full orchestra, and anything involving drums and bass guitar, needs careful attention.

Not a type of music, but dependent on instrument. I play(ed, I have a health problem stopping me right now) classical guitar, and a solo classical guitar can quite happily be played back with no compression. Same for lute.

On the other hand, a good baroque violin player can dominate a group and go quite loud enough to push dynamic range. And a guitar ensemble can do enough to justify "domestication".

Somewhere in my collection, I have a compilation disc, mostly OK, but with a full on loudness war track - of a replica 1500s spinet

 

[Sal1950]

I uploaded the loudness matched files in case you're curious, it does not sound less good than lossless streaming to be honest, just different.

Yea it's almost the same. Just have to listen around the surface noise, ticks & pops, inner groove distortion, etc etc etc. Then it sounds almost as good as the stream. LOL

 

[antcollinet]

Glass house syndrome I see. If you don't start it, I won't finish it. Consider that next time.

Oh dear god

 

[abdo123]

Yea it's almost the same. Just have to listen around the surface noise, ticks & pops, inner groove distortion, etc etc etc. Then it sounds almost as good as the stream. LOL

Is this sarcastic?

 

[Blumlein 88]

Is this sarcastic?

No sarcasm what-so-ever. Nope.....N/A.

 

[Bob from Florida]

I just don't understand vinyl
Sounds less good than lossless streaming, costs a ton to buy all the albums you want , much less practical.
With streaming you have all the albums ever released in the palm of your hand for not much money.
But I guess it's like the Rolex vs Casio G-shock kind of thing.

Not difficult to understand at all.

Streaming, CD's, saved digital content on a music server - all perfectly good sources of music. Streaming is great for the sheer variety except for the case where the site is not available for whatever reason. Bad recordings are still bad recordings regardless of format - including vinyl.

Now vinyl has a look and feel missing from other formats. You select an album, admire the artwork, pull it out of its sleeve, and place it on the turntable. Then you queue up the first track and listen to an entire album side before flipping. Listening to the whole side encourages picking better recordings and music. Who wants a "one" good song release album? Thats what 45's are for. Every 20 minutes you have to move your ass off the couch to attend to things. Slight exercise advantage to vinyl. The process is fun and if you get tired of the process you can always take a digital vacation. Now the other part is with vinyl playback is the equipment makes an audible difference. Setup of said equipment also makes an audible difference. If you like to tinker with things that make a difference then vinyl setup is rewarding. Once you set it up, other than fine tuning VTA for different thickness Albums, you are all set. Until you get the itch to try a different cartridge or tonearm. Then you get to tinker again. A good recording on undamaged vinyl played back through a good quality turntable is quite sufficient in terms of sound quality and enjoyment. As an added bonus the phono preamp makes a difference as well.

If you are the kind of person that has the dealer do all the work on your car you may not enjoy vinyl. If you like changing your oil, adjusting valves, etc then perhaps vinyl will be appealing from the process standpoint.

 

[Blumlein 88]

If you are the kind of person that has the dealer do all the work on your car you may not enjoy vinyl. If you like changing your oil, adjusting valves, etc then perhaps vinyl will be appealing from the process standpoint.

Slight paraphrasing, if you are the kind of person who enjoys a 60's British car with Lucas electronics, rather than say a Toyota Camry, then maybe from a process standpoint vinyl is for you.

 

[solderdude]

Vinyl is about the whole experience, the tweaking, the somewhat different sound and perhaps nostalgia. It can sound pretty good too. Just don't say it is better as it isn't in any technical way but it can sound more pleasant to people.

 

[Mart68]

Slight paraphrasing, if you are the kind of person who enjoys a 60's British car with Lucas electronics, rather than say a Toyota Camry, then maybe from a process standpoint vinyl is for you.

But you can upgrade the electrics in your classic British car to be as reliable as those in the Camry, (although it is a job and a half) whereas you can't fix the problems with vinyl.

 

[Robin L]

Yea it's almost the same. Just have to listen around the surface noise, ticks & pops, inner groove distortion, etc etc etc. Then it sounds almost as good as the stream. LOL

Yeah, if you can listen to a device that reduces available energy 60% from start to finish, [and be happy with its sound], then you've trained yourself to listen around one of the most obvious distortions in recorded music. It takes an awful lot of "ear training" to "tune out" that kind of distortion.

 

[killdozzer]

Oh, c'mon guys, out with it! The reason records are better is because you can't hide satanic messages on a CD and discover them when playing backwards!

 

[mhardy6647]

Oh, c'mon guys, out with it! The reason records are better is because you can't hide satanic messages on a CD and discover them when playing backwards!

I cannot believe that there's not some analogous way to encode Satanic messages onto a CD!?!

 

[Mart68]

Those Sony engineers clearly didn't think of everything.

I think this is a massive point in vinyl's favour. We could probably trace the general breakdown in society to the lack of Satanic messaging on modern media.

 

[Mulder]

Vinyl is about the whole experience, the tweaking, the somewhat different sound and perhaps nostalgia. It can sound pretty good too. Just don't say it is better as it isn't in any technical way but it can sound more pleasant to people.

It is often spoken and written about bad CD mastering, loudness war and etc, and it is a common argument among vinyl-aficionados that the sonic qualities of vinyl is far superior the dull digital sound. You can even sometimes see arguments like our ears are made for analogue, not for digital, etc.. What many seems to forget, or if they are to young to have been around in the pre digital days, is the fact that many vinyl records where really bad sounding. When I sometimes listen to my old vinyls, then some of them - not many but some - are great sounding and easily outperforms the digital version, but on the other hand. Some are barley listenable.

 

[Walter]

Over 20 years ago a specialist organised a few experiments on the shortcomings of LPs to see why, despite their poor measured performance, they sounded pretty good. I was involved in the evaluation.
Several surprises came out of it - like noise giving the impression of a bigger stereo image and quite high distortion being inaudible, but the thing related to this was that by 30dB of separation more made no audible difference, so 30dB is plenty for stereo imaging IME.

I had completely forgotten, but yes, that is the figure I always used to see quoted for required separation.

 

[Killingbeans]

I just don't understand vinyl
Sounds less good than lossless streaming, costs a ton to buy all the albums you want , much less practical.
With streaming you have all the albums ever released in the palm of your hand for not much money.
But I guess it's like the Rolex vs Casio G-shock kind of thing.

To me it was mostly about the cover art

 

[killdozzer]

I cannot believe that there's not some analogous way to encode Satanic messages onto a CD!?!

And as one lady comedian says, they should because you could turn a song by Taylor Swift around and have her end up with a great guy in a happy end.

 

[MakeMineVinyl]

I've had many more CDs become unplayable due to rot or any number of other causes, but I've NEVER had an LP just 'fail' and become unplayable.

 

[Robin L]

I've had many more CDs become unplayable due to rot or any number of other causes, but I've NEVER had an LP just 'fail' and become unplayable.

I'm gonna guess that you have never have played LPs on substandard equipment. I went through something like 10 copies of Stokowski's Phase 4 recording of Beethoven's 9th with the LSO. Wore them out, they became unplayable. You'll find tons of discs like that, just plain worn out, in the $1 bins of thrift stores. Record wear is a thing. Lots of defenders of the LP format claim they don't experience record wear, I'm sure there are some people that know how to handle LPs to prevent wear. But that's not most people. Record wear was [and for some people still is] a real issue. It's real hard to damage a CD like that. I've had many more LPs arrive damaged or develop damage than CDs. I've encountered very few CDs suffering from disc rot. I've encountered many LPs that came out of the wrapper warped or off-center. Have yet to encounter any off-center or warped CDs.