You think so?
I said
'In my experience, the transparency, accuracy and dynamic range of current 'mid-fi' stuff is so much better than vinyl' - why is 'better' strange here? Not trying to be facetious (sp?).
Jan
Me too, my fave was an old yellow 7" Disney record of some Scandinavian folk singer who had that extra octave. When she started singing faster, louder, and higher it was time to thrash (this was 1960).
Appols Jan, not sure I set that out well. I just mean that partly what sets vinyl apart is authenticity of original mastered sound, not strictly its fidelity. Not that it is lacking in acoustic realism I find, but the terms used to describe fidelity doesn't tell the whole story. Glad you enjoy your vinyl playback, that is what it's all about.
Perfectly right. It has took a long time till digital photography was able to compete with chemical film, but it is there now.
And we had win a lot in this quest. Now, with my full frame, i can equal chemical photography in all the aspects, dynamic, details in the black, subtility in the whites, and...ten time more sensitivity (32 000 ISO), amazing colors, incredible sharpness when the lens is good enough.
The amusing point is that we had a lot of improvement in the colors while we were fighting during years to equal... black and white old films ;-)
I'm still not 'there' with digital. the exposure latitude of film made it far more forgiving for hamfists like me.
Not true anymore. Try Sony A7 DSLR range or any recent Nikon full frame, you will be surprized.
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A photograph that is an exact copy of what one sees sort of misses the point IMHO, except in that it serves a fairly pedestrian documentary purpose.
Haha, awesome. It was either our Sesame Street record or the original Boston album for my brothers and me (using my well-loved Teddy Bear as a guitar prop). Maybe it's something to do with that extra octave? 🙂
Esperafo,
I'm sure with really good glass lenses and a large format digital capture you can take some incredible photos. I have a few friends who did photography with large format Hasselblad bellows cameras that were hard for anyone to do with an SLR type camera. At the same time it still takes a knowledge of lighting and composition to get or create those exceptional pictures. Point and shoot with preset autofocus just doesn't get you there unless by luck I would say. I was into photography long ago in another age, I built the darkroom in junior high school and was the first one of us with a light box and mixing development chemicals. I didn't have the eye for those great pictures though, it really is an art to get those pictures that stand out.
I'm sure with really good glass lenses and a large format digital capture you can take some incredible photos. I have a few friends who did photography with large format Hasselblad bellows cameras that were hard for anyone to do with an SLR type camera. At the same time it still takes a knowledge of lighting and composition to get or create those exceptional pictures. Point and shoot with preset autofocus just doesn't get you there unless by luck I would say. I was into photography long ago in another age, I built the darkroom in junior high school and was the first one of us with a light box and mixing development chemicals. I didn't have the eye for those great pictures though, it really is an art to get those pictures that stand out.
I'm somewhat of a photographic nut, and, honestly, most of my favorite photos are fairly pedestrian documentary-purposed snapshots that tell a story (typically family photos of some sort). It's kind of a pity that I'm much better at landscapes (which I find utterly boring).
Nothing wrong with that, but you have to admit 32M pixel uncompressed images of someone's first communion are probably overkill.
I love those pictures on the sides of buildings, thirty or forty feet high that say taken with an Apple Iphone. My *** those pictures are straight out of one of those cameras, photoshop and what else to get those high quality printed pictures without looking pixelated?
Indeed, that's also part of the equation. If you have access to AES papers, check out Mike Uwin's 'Analog hearts, digital minds' from the last AES convention in Warsaw.
I asked Mike to expand on his work and he has an article in the next Linear Audio.
Jan
Thanks, his results don't surprise, and personally I'd generally concur when the test involves new source programme material set out for similar mastering between vinyl and hq digital media types.
For me, a big part of what is special is authentic mastering in original vinyl, and the bona fide sound which obtains from that. And if repeated in a test as to vintage vinyl versus modern mastering for digital media, it would surprise me totally if most listeners couldn't at least identify the difference. Perhaps still prefer and choose a modern presentation simply because of semiotics...... but not me, typically 🙂
I agree with the premise, but it is no argument against digital photography. It is rather the opposite imo. There is creative stuff you can do with digital which would be completely impossible with wet film, whereas the opposite is not true.
Basically that is what Mike Uwins found. People were fairly consistent in identifying differences between vinyl and the digital master version.
They also preferred the vinyl sound in a 'usability test' where they could play CDs and records and note their preferences.
However, when asked for that preference in a DB listening test, vinyl ended up last with MP3 either 1st or 2nd. Go figure.
Jan
In most cases, I agree. However, every now and then, a component or two appear which operate better to much better than is the norm for its price class. The trick is to find them.
Case in point - my own NAD C 565BEE CD player. It simply sounds better than you normally have in its modest price class (app. €450 locally). And from NAD, hardly a high end company. I would have missed it, but I was told by a friend to check it out for its virues. I did so and was rather surprised by what I heard and impressed enough to buy it on the spot. Never looked back.
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