I clearly stated in the video annotations that the video sound quality is very poor (low res digital, noisy, echoed, and distorted due to cheap mike on videocam) , but its good enough to show that not all vinyl has easily audible ticks and pops like so many people that don't own vinyl like to claim when arguning that CD is better or just plain forgot what normal clean records sounded like because they havent owned a record or turntable in decades.
And NOPE the limiting factor in nearly all cases for vinyl playback quality isnt the record, its nearly always the turntable/tonearm/cartridge setup. A $100 setup doesn't sound as good as a $1000, which doesn't sound as good as $10,000 which doesn't sound as good as a $100,000 phono setup. The records themselves are acutally generally fantastic recordings, even many very old ones, the limiting factor is the phono player in nearly all cases. This is good though, its up the the listener to decide how far to take it, its not limited by the record and there is nothing the listener can do about it no matter how much he tries. That would be very bad situation. The situation is great which is why so many music fans still use vinyl to this day. It can go beyond CD sound if you choose to. The bottom line with vinyl vs CD is that you have to hear both with a really good high resolution playback system. the better the playback system gets, the more difference you hear between vinyl and CD and eventually as the vinyl player gets good enough it leaves CD in the dust for good. But with mediorce systems and mediocre LP players, the difference is minimal and could even favor CD if the vinyl player is just really really cheap crap. Forget about bad condition records or poorly mastered CDs, that's not the point or a fair comparison of the formats. the only fair comparison is comparing the BEST LP with the BEST CD using the BEST LP players and CD players and doing that comparison with a really high end playback system. Only then can you hear the real limitationso of each format and decide which is better, (hint - CD isnt the winner ). -- J.C. O'Connell (mailto:[email protected]) Join the CD PLAYER & DISC Discussions : http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/cdplayers/ http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/cdsound/ -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of John Sessoms Sent: Saturday, November 14, 2009 2:22 PM To: [email protected] Subject: RE: OT: Vinyl vs. Digital - the "all vinyl is noisy" myth, exposedin video From: "J.C. O'Connell" > I forgot I had this turntable demo video online. I don't hear no > stinkin scratches, tics, or pops on this demo video (not even one): > > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lnqv2XjZVYs > > (turn on your video annotations if not already) OTOH, there's an audible hiss throughout the video ... present even before the record starts. I expect that's from the amplifier/speaker combination he's using, although it may be an artifact of his video recording setup. The thread seems to have gotten hung up in an argument over "good enough" and a demand for perfection ... well, not only a demand for perfection, but a demand that everyone else recognize the "perfection" of one viewpoint over all others. Vinyl can sound damn good if you have the right equipment. So can CD audio. There are a lot of variables involved. Good quality, well maintained CDs sound better than bad quality, poorly cared for vinyl. I expect there's a whole lot more of the latter than there is of the former. And digital audio is a lot more convenient when you just want background music while you have to do something else. What about if you DON'T have the right equipment? You have to decide if you want to spend the money on audiophile stereo equipment ... or do you want to spend it on something else? Someone was bandying about the number $2500 for a good vinyl reproduction system. Gotta' consider what else you might want to spend $2500 on if you already have a good enough CD audio system? Again, it all comes down to recognizing when good enough is good enough. PS: FWIW, I do have the "right" equipment, Pioneer PL-L1000a tangential tracking turntable going into a Onkyo receiver and output to a quality set of Yamaha speakers. I can't remember what the cartridge is, but it cost almost as much as the turntable. The limiting factor for vinyl is the quality of all those old records, which went to a lot of parties while I was in my teens & twenties. They came through the 60s & 70s in just about the same shape I did ... even after taking 'em to an audiophile record shop to have them specially cleaned and sleeved at $20 a pop. PPS: The "phile" in audiophile is short for "philistine". -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
