On Wed, 17 Jul 2002, Per-Olof Karlsson wrote:
only exists in some dream world.
For playing vinyls I currently use a REGA P25 turntable (approx $1000) with standard RB600 arm and a Rega Super Elys pickup (which I highly recommend btw - it's a bargain!!). Total cost is about $1200 second-hand.
See, this is what I mean - equipment that most people can't or won't afford to buy.
in my days. The only critizism I have about it really, is that most CDs sound..boring. There's no "life" in them, even though I can't find anything particular to complain about, it doesn't provoke my feet to move, y'know?
No, I don't know. Are you sure it's not just the memories of your youth that you associate with the record player?
Moving on to the Rega turntable, which is less than 1/3 of the cost, the first thing you notice is more AIR, and more rock'n'roll!. Recordings sound much more "real", and the sounds float around in the room very "matter-of-factly". Gone is the "controlled" sound and hello to the "live" feeling.
See, you're moving into the whacky, poorly defined subjective terminology that audiophiles always seem to use to justify their religion. What is "AIR"? What is "real"? I say that CDs sound more real because there is little air involved - at least with electronic instruments no acoustic pickups are needed, cutting that troublesome and distorting air out of the picture all the way until your speakers. I also like it when music is mastered direct to CD because it eliminates the annoyances that come with live performances - environmental noise, crowd noise, and mistakes.
Express" .. On vinyl it's a big pounding disco-bitch of a record, whereas on CD it's a cold and dull synth thingie that mostly sounds "cute". The difference is so overwhelming that it's silly, especially on side 2, the TEE song itself.
I find this hard to believe, and I lack access to the equipment to test it. What we need is to hook a good spectrum analyser up to a vinyl system and a digital system and see which one more accurately reproduces the sound from the studio.
Did you never ask yourself why DJs play vinyl and not CDs?
I know the answer to that. Because vinyl is far easier to scratch and beat-match. But that will change eventually. Actually I know a DJ who is working on hardware and software to make it even easier to do DJ tricks with MP3 files than it is with vinyl records.
And as we all know, music WAS better before, right? *grin* Before what? I don't think it could have been better before Kraftwerk. :) I meant before now :)
Well, I guess that would be true since all Kraftwerk music was released before now. :)
No matter how sophisticated your equipment and recording techniques are, it is impossible to perfectly reproduce an analog signal by using digital approximations. A sound wave is a coherent signal, whereas a digital sample is an approximation of this wave.
Very true! But analog recording systems are also unable to exactly reproduce analog sound because every step of the process introduces a distortion of some kind. I really think that digital instruments fed directly to digital recording devices are the more promising technology, and can offer better approximations.
the major reason why so many people think of vinyl as "more alive" and "less artificial", because from analog sources timing is never an issue (there is no clock, just a signal). I'm sure somebody with better knowledge in digital electronics can explain this much better than I can..
Digital clocks are highly accurate - to better accuracy than humans can detect. I can't imagine the source of the problem you're referring to, since everything in a digital system should be driven by a crystal oscillator, and all lags in the system should be constant. There is also at least one source of timing problems in a vinyl system: The motor. No electric motor keeps its speed perfectly. A feedback system is used to verify its speed and make adjustments as needed. Can't you hear that happening?
This isn't true. Lots of musicians use analog mastering, and in fact I've heard that some people have abandoned digital equipment completely, *recently*.
Luddites! :)
But, let me say that hearing any of the older albums (KW1, Autobahn, Radio-Activity, TEE) on a good tube amp and a nice vinyl player.. Now, that's Kraftwerk!!!
Um, those songs don't exactly push any system to its limits. In fact, I'd say that they contain mainly sounds that a cheap analog system is capable of reproducing reasonably well.
Damn right Oh Jay! But, this is not true for good equipment. A good vinyl player usually sounds clearer than a CD does,
Heh. "Good". Expensive. Whereas a typical CD player sounds better than a typical vinyl system. If I had money to spend on a stereo system, the first think I'd buy would be good *speakers*; they're what really makes a difference. Actually, good earphones are even better; less air between the wire and the ear.
but it does so in a more "natural" way, e.g. not so aggressively.
What does that mean? -- /* Soleil */