Yes, CD played through PC optical drive and listened through headphones.
I have DVD player I used to listen to CDs on, I can check on that, however, a DVD drive can produced good sound from audio CDs as far as I know.
The model is Philips DVP3850
https://alatest.com/reviews/dvd-player-reviews/philips-dvp3850/po3-143774543,32/
I am looking for advice in playing vinyl, however, the sound I heard from the CD playing system I am using was an additional motivation for listening to vinyl.
As it turns out, from listening to hi-res files sample files from the internet, 'digital' was not the problem.
I am about to order a few, maybe 5 albums online. Depending on my tests, I plan to get LPs, I am biased I suppose.
Possibly, but I think you're underestimating CD, as a result of using it under the most non-optimal conditions. I don't have much experience playing CD through DVD players, with or without an external DAC, but they're generally not considered an adequate substitute for a dedicated CD player. Yes (as someone may be itching to point out), there was Oppo, but they pulled out of the market very abruptly a few years ago, and that was the end of that.
The interior of a computer is a noisy environment, and as a general purpose device, it simply is not designed to handle music well. That's in its stock form, usually. But a lot of that can be mitigated, either with an audiophile sound card, though I think there are probably very few of those any more, or more simply by using an external DAC.
Fortunately, a high-quality DAC is no longer expensive: SMSL, Topping, and Schiit all do affordable DACs. You might be able to feed them from just about any optical drive or cheap DVD player and get pretty good results - I think there's a whole debate in whether that works or not, but it's not one I'm looking to get into myself. I'm sure if you seek views on that, you'll get 'em. But I do expect that with a little research, if you took either that DVD player of yours, or the optical drive, and ran it into a DAC from one of the companies (or similar) that I mentioned above, you'll get a great improvement over the internal DAC of the DVD player and whatever the PC is doing to convert to analogue.
I should also mention that some of those DACs double as headphone amps. I don't go for that myself, because I have a separate headphone amp anyway, so I just own a standalone DAC, but you may want that extra functionality.
No to mp3s, imperfect music forever.
First thing to agree: I am no longer going to be listening to mp3s and rarely to YouTube or streaming.
That leaves me with the existing and to be purchased CDs and DVDs. Too bad for the mp3s I downloaded from a paid streaming service.
Their streaming is not too bad, however. https://www.hungama.com/music/
CD Under Non- Optimal conditions
I am coming to the same conclusion, turning down the volume on my milliwatt ampifier helps things quite a bit. I am in the process of putting together a proper enclosure for the TEA 2025 or I could use the PAM 8406 which showed amazing results. Testing with CDs should settle the issue.
As an aside, I do not plan to play vinyl on a day to day basis, until I get my decent turntable. Listening will be through .wav files through Bluetooth, which I find is not much different from direct connection. This is because I need a remote control on my music player, the phone music player with EQ (Musicolet) works fine. The other option is a Bluetooth and digital player, the inexpensive ones, with volume and track selection for remote control, but no equalizer.
Yet another option is to use the phone as a remote control for a directly controlled Android device using desktop sharing, but then one is limited to the phone or android device DAC. Are they any good?
Record Sourcing
The record I have currently cost $13 with shipping. In some cases the records cost less, in other cases the CD costs less, so for now I will stick
with the low cost records and try to digitize the tracks, and also my existing records which I will get brought down to this country.
The Sound of Vinyl
Just to recap: the sound of vinyl is due to ( correct me if I am wrong)
1. Lower dynamic range (70 dB)
2. Lower cross channel separation (35 dB) which some sources say adds to ambiance.
3. Compression (on early CD's)
4. Less than desirable recording and mastering processes for the CD
5. (This is important, due to a suspect CD) Original copy of the media -I don't think anyone is turning out fake LPs yet.
Does using Discogs mean that the material is original, especially CD's and not bootlegs? Is there any way to find out if CD is the original or a copy?
I have the offending CD with me, so can check.
Pirated CD have no label, or it is stuck paper.
Ink sublimation printers are used, usually lower resolution than real CDs.
What about the jacket / jewel box?
Pirated CDs rarely have those, and the poor quality of the printed label gives it away.
In India, most CD and DVD plants are closed, music is sold on line, rarely as physical media.
See the inner ring, there are usually OEM marks in the edge.
Ink sublimation printers are used, usually lower resolution than real CDs.
What about the jacket / jewel box?
Pirated CDs rarely have those, and the poor quality of the printed label gives it away.
In India, most CD and DVD plants are closed, music is sold on line, rarely as physical media.
See the inner ring, there are usually OEM marks in the edge.
What makes the sound of vinyl - I don't know. That one's outside my technical understanding, and I can't say I've considered the question in depth. Records were more than adequate when I was growing up, albeit with some annoyances, and most people knew that they were capable, with sufficient care and the right equipment, of excellent sound: at that time, high fidelity usually meant records. But in any case, for me, they are entirely wrapped up in how music was produced and consumed, all the way up to the second half of the 1980s, and although I used CD exclusively for a number of years, going back to records required no real adjustment.
For a technical assessment of what makes vinyl sound as it does, I suspect you'll get varying opinions, strongly held. That's how almost every topic in audio goes anyway.
For a technical assessment of what makes vinyl sound as it does, I suspect you'll get varying opinions, strongly held. That's how almost every topic in audio goes anyway.
This part must be true: Wikipedia
Mastering the final recording so that it fits on vinyl, dynamically, and the RIAA equalization (though reversed by the phono preamp, but not perfectly) will make vinyl sound different. In the end the systems approach is better: source, amp, room, speakers, speaker placement, listening levels, etc.
Mastering the final recording so that it fits on vinyl, dynamically, and the RIAA equalization (though reversed by the phono preamp, but not perfectly) will make vinyl sound different. In the end the systems approach is better: source, amp, room, speakers, speaker placement, listening levels, etc.
Sourcing vinyl
I have found a seller that ships at $19 plus $6 per additional LP, which is a huge bonus: shipping costs are very high, many of the shippers from the U.S. ship at $50 per LP, and $20 to $30 for shipping is not unheard of.
I found the seller on Ebay: choose a record and then click on the sellers name.
I have found a seller that ships at $19 plus $6 per additional LP, which is a huge bonus: shipping costs are very high, many of the shippers from the U.S. ship at $50 per LP, and $20 to $30 for shipping is not unheard of.
I found the seller on Ebay: choose a record and then click on the sellers name.
For the time I am listening to Spotify, sounds passable to me, at low volumes, 65dB at 1 metre. I have to be objective about this.
Spotify premium seems to be a possibility.
Spotify premium seems to be a possibility.
You can also look for typos and other strange things with the packaging: my sister bought some Police CDs but later noted that a musician was credited with "sex and vocals"!
There's a distinction to be made between 'pirate' and 'bootleg' recordings (CD or LP); 'pirates' are illegal copies of commercially available material, as per the Police CDs, while bootlegs are releases of material which has not been made available commercially, such as, for example, Jimi Hendrix Live at the LA Forum 1970. Sometimes a bootleg may be commercially issued later, in superior quality, which happened with Dylan's Basement Tapes or The Beatles' Glyn Johns version of Get Back.
Bootlegs and pirates deprive the artist(s) of income, but pirates are worse in that respect.
Geoff
I built a custom riaa preamp for my ATvm95ML and shure M95 type 2 carts. Cd and record are nearly the same with some warmth presence on the record.
I have been pleasantly surprised by Spotify. I am now listening to my third album, and I am enjoying its clear, smooth sound in the higher frequencies.
With mp3s and bad YouTube playbacks I am bracing myself psychologically for the harsh parts of the higher frequencies. There is nothing like this here.
I thought Spotify used mp3s or AAC for streaming, and at a low rate of 128, so I did some reading up. It appears that Spotify uses .ogg format, which is said to sound better than mp3s.
This is quite interesting, because I assumed that Spotify would sound the same as the other streaming service or mp3s, but I was wrong.
https://www.diyaudio.com/community/threads/using-audacity-to-equalize-mp3-on-cd.384268/post-6975481
Or Spotify uses AAC?
With mp3s and bad YouTube playbacks I am bracing myself psychologically for the harsh parts of the higher frequencies. There is nothing like this here.
I thought Spotify used mp3s or AAC for streaming, and at a low rate of 128, so I did some reading up. It appears that Spotify uses .ogg format, which is said to sound better than mp3s.
This is quite interesting, because I assumed that Spotify would sound the same as the other streaming service or mp3s, but I was wrong.
https://www.diyaudio.com/community/threads/using-audacity-to-equalize-mp3-on-cd.384268/post-6975481
Or Spotify uses AAC?
In the final reckoning, it depends on the system. There are amplifiers that can sound 'warm' and maybe change the sound quality of the output. I hear the same high quality in the sound of the Spotify music that I hear in the vinyl recorded to mp3 through the USB turntable, that is because there is no compression applied. If I did that, I could get it to sound like my other mp3s. More listening to Spotify and then to mp3s (128) confirms the harsh, unrefined quality of the mp3 recordings. Too bad for the mp3s I took time to download from the paid subscription.
I have been looking at phono 'pre-amps' and I have decided to get one once I get my turntable. These things are not that expensive. The circuitry, which I am also looking at, does not seem very complicated, however, I am not sure how it achieves the RIAA curve exactly.
Here is one: https://www.petervis.com/record_pla...preamp-circuit-lf353n/phono-preamplifier.html
The RIAA curve is given is one of the EQ setting templates in Audacity.
This raises the question: is software RIAA equalization possible? What would happen if a direct phono out is recorded digitally, to FLAC, and then the RIAA is applied through software? My guess is that the noise floor would be high, is that correct? Maybe not. There is this 'Pure Vinyl' software I came across:
http://www.channld.com/purevinyl/index.html
There is some discussion here: still reading through
https://www.diyaudio.com/community/threads/the-amazing-0-realtek-phono-preamp.355670/
Music on LPs is quite compressed compared to CD. And the bass on LPs is mono, too.
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Music is equalized fr vinyl: RIAA equalization, cutting the bass and increasing the treble. On playback, this process has to be reversed.
As far as I can see, this can be done through software, sometimes in real-time.
As far as I can see, this can be done through software, sometimes in real-time.
How can I return to vinyl when albums cost so much? I listened to it on You Tube last night. I have the tape, though.
One of my favorite albums is available online on CD for $10
There is only one vinyl album and it costs $
One of my favorite albums is available online on CD for $10
There is only one vinyl album and it costs $
Define "compressed". If you mean "Dynamic compression", then more often than not, the truth is just the opposite.
Check out for example:
https://magicvinyldigital.net/2022/...l-amazon-music-sony-360-ra-from-1982-to-2022/
This is not because of technical limitation, but because of producers' choices
This is not correct really.
Many records have bass (say, below 100Hz) mixed down to mono to save "land" (to save space on the record and be able to fit more songs).
It makes sense because at 200Hz or less, the localization of sound is lower, much lower. It even makes sense on an all-digital system, to get more bass response (because the two woofers would contribute to the sound).
But audiophile records have been made with tons of bass, and not mixed-down to mono.
This is not the correct way to apply RIAA in software.
It's not just possbile, it is done that way by some audio archivists.
They use flat phono preamps, this out goes to an ADC and then the RIAA correction is done in software.
What do you mean with "the sound of vinyl"?
a- A dirty record played on a cheap crosley turntable, with lots of ticks and pops?
b- A modern reissue (often badly done) on a mid-fi turntable with spherical stylus?
c- A vintage (1950s) mono record played on a vintage idler wheel turntable with massive arm and a spherical stylus MC cartridge like the Denon 103?
d- A clean, good quality record (known to sound really good) on a high-end or high quality turntable with a high quality tonearm with a cartridge with a sophisticated stylus tip shape?
You will find that the sound of (d) is similar to the sound of very good quality digital playback. I.e. DSD256 with a very good DAC.
A direct-cut (direct-to-disk) record MIGHT even sound better. Might.
a,b,c give different sounds.
Please take the time to find out how much dynamic range you can possible reproduce on a normal living room on an apartment during a quiet night.
Also take in mind that the "70dB" figure is misleading -- the actual dynamic range of vinyl depends on frequency and it's much higher for high frequencies (above 5KHz) and much lower for the frequencies near groove noise.
Additionally, the figures will depend on the quality of the vinyl, the pressing, and how LOUD the record was cut.
Please take the time to find out how much separation is needed for giving a convincing stereo effect.
These are very important points really and the reason some digital reissues or "remaster" don't sound as good as they should.
Just as many CDs are not true to the master tape due to strong compression applied (and even, sometimes, wrong equalization at playback!), beware that there are many, many modern records out there, manufactured because vinyl is "cool" now, that sound horrible.
And in those cases it is much better to just play back the album via spotify/tidal/etc.
If you listen to vintage (1990s and before) music, then vintage vinyl records are a good idea.
Thanks for a fine example of compression. The CD version compression looks terrible, and although I expected to hear bad sound when I listened to the following sound, the all too familiar 'CD headache' returned unexpectedly after 10 seconds, I was not even expecting it.
Are your familiar with Michael Fremer's interview on being an expert witness the case related to 'Bad'? Here it is: