Is vinyl better than cd,or is it just misplaced nostalga.

Beobloke said:
A truly superb turntable IMHO. It was hand built and so a stock of spare parts was always going to be highly unlikely. What's wrong with it?

Caveat Emptor.....................

nothing as yet, just lack of spares such as belts and the spindle spacer which I mislaid. To be frank it was my experiences with the cartridge which turned me off vinyl more than the TT. I am not the best person to align the blessed things either as my fingers are simply not nimble enough( mind you I dont know how critical this is). I may learn to loove it again one day.Thats was another thing the bloke at Eminent Audio rubbished it saying that suspended subchassis were a bad idea.
 
Funny thing is that t bought it from a dealer in london( I think they were called Image audio nad based in southall) played it for a time then decided to take it manufacturer to have a Xenon arm fitted. Mike knowles( I think thats his name) the owner of Alphason informed there was no power supply within the deck in fact he thought it was a half way house between th originbal deck ( with in built PS) and the newer one with off board PS . Anyway he sold me an alchaeus
I recently learnt that Origin live can supply very good PSs which I am told make far of a difference than any cartridge or arm. Might consider that mod but it is expensive-£450 I think.After my experiences with EA I'm a bit reluctant though
 
Vinyl has a frequency range of up to around 23khz with a 'slope' affect where its frequency response falls after the peak,

With CD, there is a 'brickwall' filter which means nothing above a certain frequency will get past (about 22 kHz)

Although human hearing is alegedly only around 20Hz - 20kHz (16kHz for most of us ) its been proven that we can detect information up to 26kHz which can go towards explaining why vinyl has much more 'atmosphere' or 'presence'- for want of a better word.

CD replay has to counteract 'jitter', RF interference and allsorts of other stuff before it gets to your ears. And for vinyl, you have bad earthing, bearing noise, dust on the needle, worn records and so on.

Back in the olden days of analog, mixing decks had just as good a frequency range as modern digital stuff, they were only limited by source material.

The recorders at the time could in theory go up to about 27khz, microphones about 23khz or so.

Now, in the cynical 21st century, we have the capability of mixing up to just about any frequency we like (whether its there in the original recording or not). Unfortunately, most music is mixed to a very compressed format to meet the demands of radio, mp3 and so on. This can lead to a very unsatisfactory noise!

A few bands still make the most of there recordings, Massive Attack are well known for this. Indeed, you can look for this yourself if you have access to an oscillascope, you can rig it up to catch the 'squaring off' of peaks on a recording that should, if correctly mixed/mastered, have nice round peaks. You will find that alot of recordings 'clip' badly or contain a lot of distortion that really makes listening to new stuff, awfull.

Music on DVD seems to have been looked after, I prefer albums on DVD over CD, you get to watch the videos too..

Now, this is only from my own experience, after working as an accoustic tech at Wharfedale and after my helpdesk stint at TAG McLaren Audio, so apologies if some of the technical details are inaccurate.
 
Whilst having no scientific background to back up what I am saying and not actually currently owning a turn table at the moment - still trying to decide what do do about a phono stage as my Cyrus doesnt have one BUT....

To me it seems logical that given a) musical instruments/ vocals are 'analogue' (with few exceptios) b) speakers output in 'analogue' that it is obvious that the 'analogue' nature of vinyl is going to be acoustically better.

CDs have certainly got benefits over vinyl - and MP3s benefits over CDs - but for a pure "what sounds better" then vinyl has to have it. Obviously the old "garbage in = garbage out" holds true for what ever medium is used but all else being equal my vote goes with vinyl - plus I am too young for it to be misplaced nostalga
 
deanym said:
Redditch is a horrid place - I understand your frustration!! :D

It was very naughty to stich you like that - you should start a very visible thread detailing your experience - so others don't use the same guy.

However unleaded is 2[ a litre cheaper at Redditch Tescos than Warndon Villages Tescos.

I popped there from Inkberrow to get some trousers
 
Surely much vinyl these days will have had been through some digital process, be it recording or mixing, so wouldn't that negate the frequency advantage of "analogue" vinyl. Or do they only release stuff that has remained analogue throughout the chain? if the former is the case then it is just the replay characteristics of vinyl that is preferred rather than the affinity with the original source.
 
Good vinyl can sound every bit as good as,if not better than,most CD,but there are as many advantages to CD as disadvantages to vinyl etc etc......

As so many others have said above,the real secret is often not in whether or not one is a better medium than the other,as in which recording/pressing is better.

I personally find the convenience of CD very useful,but I also know that it takes a good bit of money and technology to get the best out of CD,whereas good vinyl replay can be had for less.

If you wanted to try some truly excellent vinyl(or Cd for that matter)Mobile Fidelity are in business once again,and have a superb listing of real classics....all utter quality in terms of mastering/pressing and presentation.
 
Of all the formats that have come and gone over the years CD is the one that has least impressed me. Although I used to have a bog standard turntable, CD just hasn't come close, but then again I've never spent 1000s on CD player.

And now we have mp3, wmas etc.
The quality's going backwards rather than forwards with the more popular formats unlike the lesser ones like DVD-A and SACD which DOES remind me of 'vinyl quality' that I miss so much.

Can't understand why the masses have become more fussier with picture and sound quality with TV and films yet tolerated the decline of audio quality when it comes to music and when a decent digital audio format comes along liek SACD and DVDA it makes such a small impression!

I guess it's all down to convenience and nothing else :(
 

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