True. But when we go out into the market to purchase a vinyl recording, how do we know how good the sonics on that recording will be? For analogue audiophiles, most new reissues or new music will probably come from a digital source unless the album says that it was pressed from an analogue source. How do we know the quality of that digital source, as well as how well the recording engineers pressed music from that source?
The muddy waters of Analogue vs. digital today
With new technology, everything is changing so fast it is hard to keep up with new recordings. I have had a turntable all of my audiophile life, although I admit I played mostly CDs for many years. It was only since I upgraded my analogue system to a certain degree in the mid-nineties, that I could hear that records sounded better than CDs. It wasn’t a very expensive upgrade, a used Rega 3 with glass platter, new Sumiko Bluepoint Special, and a floor demo ARC PH-3. Probably somewhere around $3K. Mid-90s remember.
Now my system is very upgraded and I can hear more differences between vinyl and streaming at high resolution. CDs have kind of been left in the dust. 44.1 resolution sounds kind of tinny and flat. I listen if that’s my only choice, but I can easily hear the difference. I credit myself with a decent ear after doing critial listening for 30+ years. My ear is not as good as most reviewers, but you'll understand why it’s good enough to write a forward to this thread.
I won’t go through the differences I hear between analogue and digital, because you’ve heard it all before. What I want to talk about is my confusion in this new recording landscape.
I had purchased Roberta Flack’s "First Take" when it came out and I’d kept the record for more than forty years when I realized it had really seen its better days. Basically, it was unlistenable, even after a few washes in the Degritter. I looked at near mint copies of the record and they were quite expensive. Then I saw that there was a new pressing for a reasonable price.
I was listening to the new pressing of "First Take" a few days ago when I realized it sounded overly compressed at the high end. I asked my new audiophile friend chatgpt if the record was pressed from an analogue source. Nope. I was basically listening to a digital recording pressed into vinyl. Chatgpt says that most records made after 1980 come from digital sources. So, I found a reasonablly priced orignal pressing of "First Take." My grandaugher in college can have the digital one.
Today I was playing a fairly new recording of Gustavo Dudamel and Yuja Wang playing Rachmaninoff’s Variations on a Theme by Paganini. I live in L.A. and have been lucky enough to see Dudamel live many times and Yuga Wang several times. It’s a beautiful recording, wide and deep and detailed and musical. I pronounced it the best classical recording I owned. But it was put out recently. So, I checked with my audiophile buddy chatgpt. The record is from a very high resolution digital source. Chatgpt says that digital can sound more analogue on vinyl because the engineers roll off the high end a bit.
So, now things are more than a bit confusing. Do I buy a recording from before the 80’s on expensive vinyl or might it actually sound better streaming at 192 kHz? If you listen to Patricia Barber’s "Clique" at 172 kHz, it sounds pretty good. So good, i have not bothered to go out and buy it on vinyl.
Does anyone else feel a similar confusion in this modern market, and do you have any suggestions for negotiating it?
- ...
- 130 posts total
there in lies the rub. it is up to the mix and mastering engineers to do good by us with decent to exemplary mixes. or you just have to listen to the mix like that as that is what you get also if you're obsessive like I am you look for the names of the mix and mastering engineers to know what to generally avoid |
Maybe I can use chatgpt for that. It seems to know who the engineers were on all of the albums I've asked about. I am disappointed with the Roberta Flack reissues, though. I might as well stream the music if it's at a decent quality. When I put in a new Pass Labs XP-25 phono pramp my neighbor came over to hear it and asked me to play Springsteen's "Dancing in the Dark." It sounded awful, and I thought I hadn't set up my phono preamp right. It did need a few tweaks, but it ended up that "Born to Run" was a terribly mastered album. From a digital source compressed for car radios. I think my system has become so revealing, I simply cannot play albums like that again. That being said, I am an "Everything but the Girl" fan. Their albums made in the 90s that come from digital sources sound okay. I can listen to them. Possibly because much of the background to Tracy Thorn's voice is digital. |
It is very muddy waters, with a lot of hit and miss. I have some 44/16 redbook CDs (mostly from Japan) that sound almost as enjoyable as good vinyl. But the majority of rock/pop CDs sound AWFUL compared to vintage pressings. They sound flat, constrained, lifeless, and just don’t "breathe". You generally don’t need "first" pressings of vinyl. Just a good vintage pressing. There are always exceptions.
|
I get it, my advice: 1. LPs: AFTER you have your analog ’very good enough’. (i.e. my analog is ’done’). No longer thinking about any equipment except perhaps collecting a few cartridges. IF into Jazz, so much great content exists prior to 1958, so get thee a true MONO cartridge. I highly recommend this Grado to start. https://gradolabs.com/products/grado-prestige-mono-phono-cartridge-model-me Elliptical, $185. User replaceable stylus $100. I learned here, tried it, everyone who hears it here ’understands’ the benefit of less noise and more distinctness of individual instruments and voices that they hear when I compare it to any of my Stereo cartridges playing thru my system with the Preamp in Mono Mode (which I thought was ’good enough’ for many many years). After that, you might think about a second tonearm, your pre-calibrated Mono cartridge ready to go in seconds. Then you can have some friends over for an Oscar Peterson evening. Have them bring a few of their OP LPs. Mix and match Stereo and Mono without a second thought. I never tire of showing this (others are probably sick of it) but with help here, I ended up with 3 arms that I get to enjoy till the very end.
2. Quality of Individual Pressings (LPs and CDs) Try to stop thinking about the individual pressings. Research, make a choice that costs what you won’t think and remember as too high. I got so many with slight warps, that I stopped buying 180 gm .... and after trying a few 45 rpm, I stopped buying them. It’s exhausting and expensive, Get ’........ MIGHT be better’ out of your brain, enjoy the content, and how LPs with great engineering decisions, sound on your system. That’s it, done. A ’few’ special loved content, ok, go all out, why not, I have 3 versions of one I love (some friends go beyond that). 3. CDs Find and buy a new CD Player. Play your CDs here (near enough to me in Plainfield, NJ 07062?). I have no doubt you will change your mind about how good they can sound. If you care about ink-black noise free backgrounds, make sure it plays SACDs. The content and recording engineering isn’t necessarily better, but it comes out of deep silence, I appreciate the ones I have, but I don’t actively collect them, just if a good price pops up, I might spend the difference, but standard CD’s are quite enjoyable here again. Many will say get a transport and a DAC, you have a DAC, you could do that. I wanted a single unit and I don’t stream. My choice was a Sony xa5400es, lightly used. (lasers age with use not years), Sounds so good, I’m actively listening to CDs and even buying used ones. I mix LPs and CDs without a second thought. 4. Reel to Reel, well, think long and hard before you jump in. Roberta Flack (anyone): come here, listen to my Reel to Reel versions. Mine are not great 15-1/2 IPS like my friend Rick’s two Otari’s, which are awesome, mine are prosumer 7-1/2 IPS pre-recorded, played on good but not great Teac X2000R. Tapes are 60 years old and still sound better than my LP and CD versions. Ironically, technically, it is the noisiest format, but get it going, when the music plays, it is ’beyond involving’. I have friends over, play CD version; LP version; R2R version. Always, without exception people pick LP over Cd and Tape over LP. Pre-recorded content is limited to that era, so think about that before you jump. 5. What else? Get thee some friends to enjoy it all with! Cartridges: buy a few inexpensive tools, and learn to mount/align/calibrate then yourself. Hopefully you chose, or change to tonearms with removable headshells, preferably ones that allow azimuth adjustment which allows you to get the fitting very tight first, then get azimuth ‘right’ fairly easily. |
- 130 posts total