ok, it might be potentially the source material. I think Ill need to find another song/album to compare with and play them one after the other to do an A/B test.
Vinyl playback - lack of bass?
Alright, hopefully this isn't a dumb question.
I split my audio listening between analog and digital. Both setups use the same preamp/amp/speakers etc. I noticed that when listening to records, there isn't as much pronounced bass vs lets say when listening to tidal/qobuz. I'm wondering if its my phono that might have a lack of bass? or is it because my cartridge hasn't fully broken in yet? For fun , I connected my sub when I switched to side 2 yesterday, it helped pronounce the bass a bit more as I elevated the volume on the sub. But nothing crazy. but was decent enough.
Besides that, everything sounds fantastic and great on LP vs digital. Also, to mention, lately have been playing some older original rock records. I should try popping in a newer record for fun to see if it makes a difference (most likely not analog sourced of course). or I can try the new Black Sabbath Rhino release.
Setup - analog - rega p6 w/ ania cartridge (only 30 hours on the cartridge so far). Phono - Moon 310lp.
Digital - moon 280d mind2 w/ dac
Rest - Preamp Moon 740p, amp pass labs x250.8 , speakers Sonus Faber Olympica III
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- 86 posts total
@bubba12 thanks, I kind of had a feeling about this as well. |
I would not agree with the idea that digital recordings have more bass than their analog counterpart. Aside from purposely over engineered or compressed digital release, I would argue that if your bass is light when playing analog it is due to the choice in turntable, phono stage and cartridge. In theory, if the recording version is the same for analog and digital, they should not sound so different. Only in the subtleties that lend one to be more enjoyable to you. |
Digital is supposed to be able to handle more bass than vinyl, but I’m pretty sure in reality that capability is not utilized very often. I have a few records where I have both analog and digital copies and I really don’t hear any difference in bass response between any of them. I agree that bass response in older records can be very lacking. That seemed to start to improve in the early seventies but didn’t seem to become consistent until the eighties. Also a lot of rooms will accentuate the mid range, so some room treatments and or room correction can help balance out the sound. |
- 86 posts total