Is it true that vinyl record players have better sound quality? (Part 2)
Note 2: This is why you can immediately dismiss anyone who nonchalantly says “analog is better” on the grounds that digital music somehow has “gaps” or less information than analog signal: output from a properly designed digital music player. analog signal, and this signal is a complete and accurate version of the original signal (within the frequencies specified by Nyquist).
It is mathematical. Also note that almost every new record coming out on vinyl today (i.e., the hipster-preferred LP version of a new Decembrists set) went through many stages of recording and digital processing before getting into those vinyl beats. .
Note 3: I’m limiting my discussion here to CDs and I’m not trying to cover both the bottom of digital audio (i.e. low-bandwidth MP3) and the top (high-definition formats like SACD) that reduced rates of distribution. In fact, bad MP3s will have artifacts and sound worse than recordings; the higher formats are mostly gold, but at least as good as the CD technology I’m focusing on. High-performance MP3 (320kbps and above) and lossless digital formats have been shown to be indistinguishable from CD originals in double-blind studies, and therefore the discussion here applies to these cases as well.
Note 4: Many of the early CDs also had a number of other sins, including sources using the wrong types of master tapes (for example, 3rd and 4th generation dubbing masters optimized for cassette production) and mastering with very old equipment that does a poor job. digitization. These deficiencies, often described in terms of “hard”, “grainy” or “metallic” sound as opposed to the “warm” or “soft” sound of discs, were mostly corrected during the first 2 years of CD production. , but they damaged the reputation of the CD itself. carrier among many audiophiles, in some cases forever.
Note 5: There is an additional possibility that the recording player (the signal chain of the stylus, the cartridge and the audio pre-amplifier) can change the sound in a pleasant way. This is an ironic possibility as the stated purpose of audiophile playback is to avoid any possibility of distortion or coloration of the original sound, but this may explain part of the preference for analog. Of course, to the extent that artists want their music to sound a certain way, they can align or colorize their work to make it sound the same on a CD.
Note 6: Of course, you can have an active and focused listening experience regardless of the media. This is why double-blind studies (where, by definition, listeners are fully engaged and unaffected by psychological biases) tend to disprove theories that analog formats are inherently better than digital.
