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Vinyl Records and Turntables Are Gaining Sales.

Artisan Fan

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Originally Posted by Faded501s
is it not probable that Digital will eventually negate any advantages of staying in the Analog realm?
stirpot.gif


One more thing - on older recordings where there is an analog tape, there will likely remain an advantage (becoming ever so small admittedly) to keeping the music entirely in the analog domain.
 

Faded501s

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Cool...thanks for the info AF. I still don't see where I was so far off except that I was talking in idealistic terms and not practical ones. Prolly beating a dead horse here but if digital can contain all of the info as analog I don't see any advantage to analog...or are we talking distortion?
 

lawyerdad

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Just piling on -- great photo, AF!
 

Artisan Fan

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Originally Posted by Faded501s
Cool...thanks for the info AF. I still don't see where I was so far off except that I was talking in idealistic terms and not practical ones. Prolly beating a dead horse here but if digital can contain all of the info as analog I don't see any advantage to analog...or are we talking distortion?

It's a bit more complicated but if you have an analog tape then to create a CD you need to have an A to D process and to listen a D to A process. Both of these conversions introduce sonic distortions.

Originally Posted by lawyerdad
Just piling on -- great photo, AF!

Thanks!
 

AThingForCashmere

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Originally Posted by Faded501s
Cool...thanks for the info AF. I still don't see where I was so far off except that I was talking in idealistic terms and not practical ones. Prolly beating a dead horse here but if digital can contain all of the info as analog I don't see any advantage to analog...or are we talking distortion?

The point I think you're missing is that human senses, including our sense of hearing, include certain intangibles that cannot be reduced to or represented with 1's and 0's. E.g. for some people, myself included, the new CGI digital effects used in films feel completely empty compared to older, far less "advanced" techniques. Sure, the new digital methods may look more realistic, but they're missing a certain something in feeling. Music is the same way. It's not just heard, it's felt, and digital music leaves many people unsatisfied and empty inside. The problem isn't that digital does not contain all the information of analog, it's in the way this information is output or presented to our sense of hearing, and experienced by our brains. Often these intangibles cannot even be described in objective terms, so discussion of them becomes next to impossible.

Another problem is that people are products of their past experience. The less one has heard analog, the less one is able to distinguish what's missing from digital. I know a lot of younger people who sincerely believe 128kbps MP3's sound "perfect". You can't tell them they're wrong, because in their minds this garbage does sound perfect.
 

Artisan Fan

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Originally Posted by AThingForCashmere
Another problem is that people are products of their past experience. The less one has heard analog, the less one is able to distinguish what's missing from digital. I know a lot of younger people who sincerely believe 128kbps MP3's sound "perfect". You can't tell them they're wrong, because in their minds this garbage does sound perfect.

So true.
worship.gif
 

A Y

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People should just enjoy their media of choice, and refrain from making technical-sounding justifications for why they like their media. That's when we all get into trouble.

Nice picture of your turntable, AF. Could you describe how the shot was set up?

--Andre
 

Faded501s

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Originally Posted by Artisan Fan
It's a bit more complicated but if you have an analog tape then to create a CD you need to have an A to D process and to listen a D to A process. Both of these conversions introduce sonic distortions.

Yes, this is my understanding and thanks again for all of your insight. I didn't know we had an audio pro here. I just got into this hobby about a year ago and it's become a mild obsession.

Originally Posted by AThingForCashmere
The point I think you're missing is that human senses, including our sense of hearing, include certain intangibles that cannot be reduced to or represented with 1's and 0's. E.g. for some people, myself included, the new CGI digital effects used in films feel completely empty compared to older, far less "advanced" techniques. Sure, the new digital methods may look more realistic, but they're missing a certain something in feeling. Music is the same way. It's not just heard, it's felt, and digital music leaves many people unsatisfied and empty inside. The problem isn't that digital does not contain all the information of analog, it's in the way this information is output or presented to our sense of hearing, and experienced by our brains. Often these intangibles cannot even be described in objective terms, so discussion of them becomes next to impossible.

I see your point but my impression is that digital's "missing a certain something" is the missing information that is the attack and decay of the notes. This is the crux of the analog vs digital debate...that digital, as we know it today, is not capable of holding/processing/presenting as much information as analog. When it is, it will be as AF said, an issue of distortion introduced in the AD/DA conversions.

Anyway, I appreciate the discussion. But I still maintain that dowloaded FLACS played on my $500 CD Player/DAC combo sound just as good to my silver ears as my buddy's wax played on his $60K system...probably better when my new (10-year-old) $250 MAC-3 gets here
devil.gif
 

Faded501s

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Originally Posted by A Y
People should just enjoy their media of choice, and refrain from making technical-sounding justifications for why they like their media. That's when we all get into trouble.

--Andre


+1,000
 

LabelKing

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I find that when I record certain albums off of vinyl onto tape using one of the old-school dbx expanders, the music's dynamic range is sometimes enhanced significantly.

The old dbx literature claimed that with an LP one only got so much due to the compression.
 

LabelKing

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Analog also allows one to fulfill one's accessorizing yen--carbon fibre brushes, antistatic guns, record clamps/weights, Tiptoe feet, styus force gauges, tiny stylus bruhes, etc.
 

audiophilia

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Originally Posted by LabelKing
Analog also allows one to fulfill one's accessorizing yen--carbon fibre brushes, antistatic guns, record clamps/weights, Tiptoe feet, styus force gauges, tiny stylus bruhes, etc.

hell yeah, lk
 

LabelKing

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Originally Posted by audiophilia
dbx nasty
smile.gif

Are you a Dolby proponent? Dolby and dbx seem to be much more common in reel to reel setups to get rid of any probable tape hiss, which is why I suppose one doesn't hear much about them now.
 

robbie

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LK, am i correct in my reading? do you record your LP's to Reel to Reel tapes? Where do you find the tapes? I feel like I've read/heard something about them no longer producing reel to reel tape.
 

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