"Arny Krueger" wrote in message
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"Rob" wrote in message
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Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,

I really don't know why apparently intelligent people give all sorts of
non sequitur answers to my questions about why they actually think vinyl
is ever better. To say the odd example sounds better than a badly
mastered
CD from the same source is simply neither here nor there.

Agreed. Mastering seems to be one of the least understood aspects of the
production of recordings. Even some people who pretend to be expert in the
field like Iain don't really seem to get it.

I suspect it could be to do with five things: the 'distortion', the
processing involved in converting analogue to digital and then back to
analogue,

It turns out that the better ADC and DAC chips around, which are available
for moderate prices, are among the most highly perfected of all audio
components. I can take some of the most highly regarded studio equipment
on the market today and accurately measure its distortion with a quality
audio interface that just about any audiophile can afford.

the CD standard cannot capture all the sound,

It has been known and routinely proven for over 20 years that the CD
format is sonically transparent. IOW it can capture all the sound that can
be heard by humans.

sub-LP standard transfer to CD,

In fact the very process of transferring LPs to CDs is generally agreed to
be inherently substandard, and to be avoided at any reasonble cost. The
best way to make a CD of a recording that was previously available on LP
is to obtain the master tape that was used to make the cutting master that
the LP was made from.

and a fifth - I'd bundle perception, the aural experience (lack of
understanding/appreciation),

It is true that most LP bigots have no idea what the origional
performances that are recorded on the LPs that they prize actually sounded
like at the time they were recorded. Contrary to common LP bigot dogma,
all violins don't sound the same and there is no way to know whether a
recording is a good reproduction of a given performance without direct
reference to that performance.

marketing, association and a number of other intangibles that don't
spring to mind.

The so-called advantages of the LP format are mostly illusions that rest
in the so-called minds of a tiny remnant of one-time audiophiles.

'Why' is important to some, but for many the notion that it just sounds
preferable is sufficient.

It is true that there are a lot of people who will do just about anything
to be *right*, correctness be blithered!

Iain, of course, has an axe to grind since he makes a living out of
supplying/using old technology for those who want it, and good luck to
him, but why the others like a recorded medium that alters and degrades
the original master when better alternatives exist I'll never know.

I suspect that if Iain has managed his life well, he makes a lot more of
his living from investments than by hyping outdated technology.

Just as a matter of opinion, I've always preferred the distortions that
analogue tape adds to a signal than that of records. Perhaps I'm unduly
sensitive to second harmonic distortion.

In the day of just analog, listening to master tapes and good copies of
them provided a lot of relief from the sonic trash that is inherent in the
production of LPs.

A good test for vinyl is male speech. I've never heard any even remotely
natural from one. Yet equipment to record and reproduce convincing
speech
from say behind a acoustically transparent screen existed some 50 years
ago...

Can't say I've noticed any particular vinyl limitation in this regard.

Your ears must be shot or you live in an enviroment that lacks proper
sonic references.



Why TF do you even bother with all this crap Arny?

For all your OSAFs, putting words into people's mouths, dubious 'technical'
information, strawmen arguments and ludicrous tub-thumping, you haven't, to
my knowledge, put *one single person* off vinyl - just about *everybody* I
know with a 'hifi system' uses and *still* enjoys it!

(Perhaps, if you contacted the UK TV broadcasting companies, you could get
them to stop showing pix of records and turntables on a damn near *daily*
basis and give yourself a better chances of eradicating vinyl from the
planet.....???)

What was it - 'protecting the newbies from the dangers of vinyl'...??

:-))