is the sound of vinyl due to the physical process of the turntable?


Same here. I do not own a turntable, however, if the sound of vinyl comes from the physical act of the record on the turntable why can't I transfer digital audio or at least emulate that process to digitally recreate that sound? I remember back in the 1970's you had 45rpm records on the back of cereal boxes and they were not vinyl, however they sounded good why can't I do that myself?
guitarsam

Showing 1 response by guyboisvert

@theo @mrubey  It all starts with recording the actual instruments in studio.  Everything is recorded digitally theses days.
Technically, the best medium is digital and by far: Much Higher Dynanics, much better separation, much lower noise, no wear out, no angle error, no medium saturation, no compression, etc etc etc.  The Vinyl is highly processed to fit in the physical medium.  There is the RIAA EQ Curve applied so it can sound decent on this very poor medium.
And contrary to what you said, there is no "lost information" with digital, it's simple math theory at work.
All that being said, you are perfectly right to prefer the sound of one or another, digital or analog.  Each component has its transfer function, at the end, whatever it is, you are the one who listen and choose.

Personally, i have a decent DAC with a matching intergrated amp and speaker, i love the sound.  I'm really not looking back to vinyl, that's for sure!  But that's just me.  I listened to many HiFi soundsystems for the last 40 years: Linn Sondek, JA Mitchell, Classé, Mark Levinson, Naim, Snell, Magneplanar, KEF, Wadia, etc etc etc.  While they sounded very good, for me nothing beats a high quality digital playback with a good DAC and matched component.  Happy listening!