But My Ears Say “NO!”

[JJCalvillo]

Got a link to this

Where a person “explains” why digital files are as good as vinyl. Don’t believe he mentioned that digital files are not created equal. Can anyone explain what else he left out?

 

[EngineerNate]

Personal opinion:

Take a clean record. Use a good cart of your choice with a great preamp that you like. Feed that signal to a good ADC like a Mytek. Save the digital file at 88.1 or 96 khz 16 or 24 bit. Playback through a good transparent dac. A/B the two.

$5 most of us won't be able to hear the difference.

 

[DaveVoorhis]

$5 most of us won't be able to hear the difference.

Only $5?

I'd bet $500 almost no one will be able to hear the difference under a properly-conducted double-blind test, and anyone who does hear a difference won't be able to (a) identify which is which, or (b) identify a preference.

 

[JJCalvillo]

Personal opinion:

Take a clean record. Use a good cart of your choice with a great preamp that you like. Feed that signal to a good ADC like a Mytek. Save the digital file at 88.1 or 96 khz 16 or 24 bit. Playback through a good transparent dac. A/B the two.

$5 most of us won't be able to hear the difference.

We’d need to get a consensus about the system. Then the question is could someone ID which was vinyl and which was Memorex, eeeer digital.

I could hear a difference between a CD and vinyl with my gear, but just got a DAC that improves on the sound I was getting from a 20 year old CD player. Will have to play Hejira again and see how close it is now.

 

[EngineerNate]

Only $5?

I'd bet $500 almost no one will be able to hear the difference under a properly-conducted double-blind test, and anyone who does hear a difference won't be able to (a) identify which is which, or (b) identify a preference.

I don't like putting dollar values on bets that I wouldn't want to actually pay out if someone called me on it.

I'm actually considering doing just this for my main system. I want to build a full active 2.2 setup and that's MUCH easier and more flexible in digital. Instead of doing D->A->D->A for all of my digital sources, it makes much more sense to just AD the single analog source I run (vinyl).

Vinyl definitely has a sound, but I personally think it has more to do with the distortions, coloring, and crosstalk inherent in vinyl playback than it does with it being analog. And a conversion to digital should preserve all of that.

 

[Frank Sol]

FWIW

In my main system I run a Dynavector DV-20X2L --> PS Audio Nuwave Phono Converter set at 24/96 --> PS Audio DSD DAC --> Preamp

It's crazy for an old man like me but that ^ setup sounds great... No negative digital signature , sounds analog. Have had too many people hear it and they agree. YMMV

 

[sqlsavior]

The Nyquist theorum is OK, I suppose, if you think a triangle wave is the same as a sine wave.

 

[DaveVoorhis]

The Nyquist theorum is OK, I suppose, if you think a triangle wave is the same as a sine wave.

?

The Nyquist theorem effectively identifies the maximum waveform slope that can be accurately modelled over a given period of time (i.e., sample), which is directly related to frequency in general. Outside of that, the shape of some periodic waveform is irrelevant.

 

[cpt_paranoia]

The Nyquist theorum is OK, I suppose, if you think a triangle wave is the same as a sine wave

I'm not sure if it's the Nyquist theorem you are having trouble with, or Fourier series...

 

[Condorsat]

If I needle drop a late 60's or early 70's legacy vinyl recording to digital .. it sounds great. If I buy a pre-recorded CD of that same album .. it may or may not sound good to my ears .. depends on the mastering more so than the technology used IMHO. Still will not sound like Vinyl .. unless I do my own need drop.

 

[Bob]

it also depends on the music you listen to, rock seems to be played loud
and at some levels you won't hear the difference and it wouldn't matter.

 

[Mark B]

The following link provides some insight on the Nyquist-Shannon sampling theorem.

https://www.audiostream.com/content...-about-it-tim-wescott-wescott-design-services

 

[Ken Boyd]

I think I would be able to tell the difference almost all the time, as I would hear the occasional pop or tick in even the best vinyl. Perhaps not always in the most dynamic tracks, but when it comes to the end as a song fades out and between tracks, and on the lead in and the lead out, for sure.

 

[c.coyle]

Got a link to this . . . Where a person “explains” why digital files are as good as vinyl. Don’t believe he mentioned that digital files are not created equal. Can anyone explain what else he left out?

That all records are not created equal.

 

[bluescat]

I think I would be able to tell the difference almost all the time, as I would hear the occasional pop or tick in even the best vinyl. Perhaps not always in the most dynamic tracks, but when it comes to the end as a song fades out and between tracks, and on the lead in and the lead out, for sure.

+1,what Ken said.

 

[4-2-7]

Don’t believe he mentioned that digital files are not created equal.

All records are not equal even more so than something digital.

 

[vwestlife]

The Nyquist theorum is OK, I suppose, if you think a triangle wave is the same as a sine wave.

Ah, the old "connecting the dots" myth (a variant of the "stairsteps" myth), which can easily be debunked:

 

[JP]

...it makes much more sense to just AD the single analog source I run (vinyl).

Yup.

 

[sqlsavior]

Ah, the old "connecting the dots" myth (a variant of the "stairsteps" myth), which can easily be debunked:

You have magical interpolation? No, you don't.

 

[JJCalvillo]

Don't know about digital audio, but when it comes to interpolation in digital photography, it causes problems. That's a totally different field, and because it causes problems in one doesn't mean it does in the other.

OTOH...