Can you imagine a world without vinyl?

I am a bit bewildered by all these Vinyl eulogies...rather nostalgic IMHO.

If Vinyl was so much better than other mediums then can someone expain why it has never been used as the reference storage medium for the audio industry. I mean why did the recording industry use analog master tapes and now digital masters if Vinyl was the ultimate?

Even before digital existed, I thought most people accepted that Vinyl was an imperfect replica of original studio analog tapes, especially the LP's which undergo a form of compression to achive their long play....

Come on everyone, lets not make Vinyl out to be something it is not. I'll be first to admit that great Vinyl sounds absolutely awesome...nirvanna perhaps, but it ain't the only one that "sweeps away the world and delivers the goods."

Sure some people prefer the sound of Vinyl and I respect that, but that there can only be one is the corny stuff of Highlander fantasy movie.

Gregm,

It may be masochism or something else, or both. But, really, believe me, this ain't no nostalgia:)

I think you hit the nail on the head.

Nostalgia is for the Vinyl jackets themselves and the length of time they have been owned and when/where they were purchased. Or reminiscing when playing a song (which can be Vinyl, CD, Radio or whatever)

If I understood correctly, I think what you are describing is a ritualistic behaviour and aesthetic fascination of the beauty and elegance of TT/Vinyl. An engineering marvel that outwardely manifests its beauty rather than technology deeply burried/hidden on a sliver disc and inside circuit boards and software alogorithms (as in CD & Digital).

I can understand that. Music is Art. A beautiful TT is art too.

Those who listen ---> use Vinyl, those who read datas listen ----> to Digits.

Just like dining out, given the choice I will dine at best quality restaurant, (Vinyl) it that's is not available I eat at a midline place (CD). If nothing else is available fast food has to do (iPod).

Great stuff!

The marketing people at Axe Cologne need your talents... I can see the ad in my minds eye....

Computer Nerd with goofy glasses, greasy hair and a pocket full of pens listens to a CD.

Cut to ->

Slob with iPod surrounded by other slobs eating a mushy fast food burger whilst humming and spitting out bits of half chewed food.

Cut to ->

Tall, slender, dark, handsome male, adjusting his turntable arm, surrounded by bejewelled babes in sleek evening dresses and high heels, holding album covers...

Narrator says ,"For those who know how to listen...."

LOL. More seriously; Nick Hornby wrote an amusing book about this male phenomenon (Boys and their toys) called "High Fidellity"...it is an entertaining and an enlightening read (for any male with a passion for audio, you may find something of yourself reflected in its pages, I know I did).

What you will get is digital, and here we go again with the debate!

Perhaps they'll come up with a way like Arny had done to him in Total Recall....to implant you with sonic mamories?

Imagine it...you choose who you could be, say John Atkinson and take a weeks audiophile holiday!

Eldartford,

I noticed that the input signal level, displayed by a string of LEDs, never got even half way up, meaning that only the lower bits of the A/D were being used.

Now I am utilizing all the bits I paid for. In my subjective opinion, it sounds better.

It doesn't really matter according to Nika Aldrich. The dynamic range of playback music is far far less than 16 bits...so it is quite normal you only had half the lights on. Whether it is the top half or the lower half of the lights that light up it should really sound the same.

Check out "Digital Audio Explained" by Nika Aldrich...the last chapter has a list of common audio myths. Several of the myths would cause a storm here on audiogon so I won't mention what Nika claims ....but his book is highly respected (by folks like AKM who design/make these DAC/ADC chips) and worth reading, even if you disagree with his conclusions.

Shadorne...How many bits you need depends on the size of the bits

I think you will find that the quantization levels in D to A and A to D converters are fixed.

16-bit A/D conversion has 2^16 discrete numbers, or 65,536 quantization levels in the full-scale...so it has a granularity of 0.000015 or 0.0015 % of full-scale (full scale is like +/-2.5 Volts peak to peak) or roughly a quantization of around 0.03 milli-volts.

Even if you get more lights on, the quantization interval does not change, as it is tied to the full scale capabilities of the chip.

Note that the Behringer is a 24 bit ADC/DAC so we are talking about 16,777,216 quantization levels or signal granularity of 0.2 micro-volts (again a quantization granularity that is independent of which lights are lit up on the box)

=> So relax and simply stay well away from clipping if you have a studio grade 24 bit converter, as it means you have heaps and heaps of "digital" headroom to play with the digital signals using digital filters. Playing around with digital signals/filters (such as boosting one recorded channel immensely) is a good resaon to have the vast dynamic range of 24 bits so studios obvioulsy want that....but in general this capability is overkill for home play back of music. (Thankfully 24 bit DACs are really cheap so many of us have them anyway, whether they are really needed or not.)

and by driving the input harder the gain following can be less, so that one bit AT THE SPEAKER is a smaller voltage.

I notice much greater improvement by this adjustment of gains than with ceramic outlet covers

I don't question that you hear an improvement....I am just disconcerted why a higher or lower gain in the preamplification stages should make such a difference. (Might some clipping somewhere be eliminated through your adjustements.... line level mismatches between studio and consumer levels perhaps?)