7 thoughts on “The truth about vinyl – vinyl vs. digital”
I’ve long thought a preference for vinyl probably comes down to two things:
1. The particular distortions introduced in it, which are NOT faithfully produced in digital audio, and
2. How music was traditionally produced vs. how it’s done today (mostly equalization and dynamic range compression).
The big one is number 2. Music run through DRC is just broken.
The video covers all of this, I think. Great find!
This is an interesting video. One thing I think is important to note is that digital audio does not have stair-stepping of the audio signal. Shannon has proven that, provided the sample rate is 2x the highest frequency you want to reproduce, there is 1, and only 1, solution to fit a smooth waveform to the digital data you have. The resulting analogue signal does not have stair steps, to have an analogue signal change it’s value instantaneously like a stair step would imply is impossible. The output is exactly what the input was measured as.
One nit with your answer: the Shannon sampling theorem requires that the input be bandwidth-limited to half the sample rate. That’s not exactly the same as “the sample rate is 2x the highest frequency you want to reproduce”. But you are absolutely correct that there’s NO stair stepping in the output signal; the process faithfully reproduces the exact bandwidth-limited input.
The biggest complaints by analog-devotee audiophiles I can remember seeing seemed to me to be more about poor digital-mastering production shortcuts than about the full capabilities of the digital format itself.
The first commercial epub books also suffered from institutional carelessness that I can liken to that heard within many early CDs. I understand we can do better now.
Both analog and digital are subject to physical limitations and producer-imposed modifications, no?
Having grown up in the ’60’s, vinyl is cool, and I still have a lot of it today, although I haven’t bought any NEW vinyl in decades. While I personally feel that vinyl does sound better, for the massive music collections people have amassed theses days, digital is the only way to easily manage it all. For me, it would be very hard to give up the ease and convenience of digital to go back to vinyl…
Yup.
Vinyl is demonstrably and provably no better and typically inferior to modern, proper digital recordings, from audio quality down to practicality.
(Which have the bonus advantages of not wearing out and being trivial to back up.)
(That said, I enjoy having some records and listening to them – I just don’t pretend they’re Superior Quality.)
I think you certainly can have Superior Quality in vinyl compared to CD if the CD was “remastered” and made more loud. I think that’s what a lot of people are reacting to. I don’t have any vinyl (never had much, I was born in 1975) but I’d love to compare Full Moon Fever on CD vs. vinyl and see if the vinyl is less range compressed.
Produced the same way, though, the CD is always going to be more faithful.
Edit: This reminds me. My parents got a CD a couple years ago of Elvis backed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. They liked it but don’t listen to it that much. Their major complaint is that the volume goes all over the place.
I’ve long thought a preference for vinyl probably comes down to two things:
1. The particular distortions introduced in it, which are NOT faithfully produced in digital audio, and
2. How music was traditionally produced vs. how it’s done today (mostly equalization and dynamic range compression).
The big one is number 2. Music run through DRC is just broken.
The video covers all of this, I think. Great find!
This is an interesting video. One thing I think is important to note is that digital audio does not have stair-stepping of the audio signal. Shannon has proven that, provided the sample rate is 2x the highest frequency you want to reproduce, there is 1, and only 1, solution to fit a smooth waveform to the digital data you have. The resulting analogue signal does not have stair steps, to have an analogue signal change it’s value instantaneously like a stair step would imply is impossible. The output is exactly what the input was measured as.
One nit with your answer: the Shannon sampling theorem requires that the input be bandwidth-limited to half the sample rate. That’s not exactly the same as “the sample rate is 2x the highest frequency you want to reproduce”. But you are absolutely correct that there’s NO stair stepping in the output signal; the process faithfully reproduces the exact bandwidth-limited input.
The biggest complaints by analog-devotee audiophiles I can remember seeing seemed to me to be more about poor digital-mastering production shortcuts than about the full capabilities of the digital format itself.
The first commercial epub books also suffered from institutional carelessness that I can liken to that heard within many early CDs. I understand we can do better now.
Both analog and digital are subject to physical limitations and producer-imposed modifications, no?
Having grown up in the ’60’s, vinyl is cool, and I still have a lot of it today, although I haven’t bought any NEW vinyl in decades. While I personally feel that vinyl does sound better, for the massive music collections people have amassed theses days, digital is the only way to easily manage it all. For me, it would be very hard to give up the ease and convenience of digital to go back to vinyl…
Yup.
Vinyl is demonstrably and provably no better and typically inferior to modern, proper digital recordings, from audio quality down to practicality.
(Which have the bonus advantages of not wearing out and being trivial to back up.)
(That said, I enjoy having some records and listening to them – I just don’t pretend they’re Superior Quality.)
I think you certainly can have Superior Quality in vinyl compared to CD if the CD was “remastered” and made more loud. I think that’s what a lot of people are reacting to. I don’t have any vinyl (never had much, I was born in 1975) but I’d love to compare Full Moon Fever on CD vs. vinyl and see if the vinyl is less range compressed.
Produced the same way, though, the CD is always going to be more faithful.
Edit: This reminds me. My parents got a CD a couple years ago of Elvis backed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. They liked it but don’t listen to it that much. Their major complaint is that the volume goes all over the place.