Hi humbug, your experience sounds similar to mine. Back in the 80s I embraced CD and disposed of all my vinyl gear. With the renewed interest I purchased what was a very popular turntable/cartridge combination in the hope of reviving my interest. I played about three album sides and thought, hmm if that was what vinyl sounded like keep it. I was then given a vintage Thorens TT to repair which had a medium range Sure cartridge. I had to build a phono pre amp and once it was all aligned and together it produced a very decent sound. Way way better than the pop star TT I had purchased earlier.
I have since replaced the cartridge and made a few tweaks to the TT, best thing was building an isolation table. Most people listening now prefer the vinyl to CD.
Remember vinyl was mixed for stereo speakers, headphones and surround were not the thing of the day. Sounds like some setting up and listening over two speakers would give you an improvement. As TNT says, if you insist on making comparison get the levels as close as you can.
I have since replaced the cartridge and made a few tweaks to the TT, best thing was building an isolation table. Most people listening now prefer the vinyl to CD.
Remember vinyl was mixed for stereo speakers, headphones and surround were not the thing of the day. Sounds like some setting up and listening over two speakers would give you an improvement. As TNT says, if you insist on making comparison get the levels as close as you can.
Ummm... Ewwww... I don't think I would ever want to subject my ears to such torture...
Unless there is another less obnoxious Hasselhoff that I'm unaware of???
I would assume so... otherwise it wouldn't work? Or are alluding to pure hardware decoding vs software decoding via cpu?
My Onkyo receiver has no problem either, playing FLAC directly off a USB drive.
The creative labs supports hi-res (24bit/96KHz) and maybe more. I'm not exactly sure about the receiver. Though I haven't found the need to exceed even those limits as my system a) not up to task, and b) i probably couldn't tell the difference anyway.
You bet. I love their older stuff. That's including their 90s stuff like Load, Reload, and up to S&M... But after that it was kind of downhill for me lol
Whilst my setup whilst is arranged to surround, it's still playing all channel stereo. Maybe it's a personal preference or a wattage/power thing... but with just 2 speakers running it sounds rather underwhelming and 'meh' to me. I suppose a really big beefy set of high wattage 2 channel speakers and a high power amp to go with would make all the difference... but it's not what I have... and it seems I can make up for it with just using more speakers. Perhaps it's blasphemous but listening in surround feels quite immersive... and I kinda like it... However I've never experienced listening to a proper stereo system in person to compare though... So I guess it makes communicating all this though a forum makes it more challenging.
There have been lots of pre 1980's listening suggestions, but I don't think that is humbug's thing. What's the point of listening to music that you don't really enjoy, just because it sounds "good"? We'd all be better off just listening to music that makes us tap our feet or dance around the room.
What did you expected in the conclusion? Compare the sound engineer who made the recording or compare media recording technically?
If you choose the first, you should use best recording and best audio equipment that you can find. If you choose second, you should make your own recording and mastered to optimize the media recording.
If you choose the first, you should use best recording and best audio equipment that you can find. If you choose second, you should make your own recording and mastered to optimize the media recording.
I think the case can easily be made that analog music available in LPs all came before '85.
So, if you're gonna listen to music post '85, you might as well go with a digital source medium since even today's LPs were mastered in digital consoles.
I think the biggest issue, something the OP referred to, is that modern high rez music is not available in a physical medium and often encoded in propietary file formats that tie the user into a subscription and/or a live connection to the Internet.
OP... one of my plans, indeed, I already have all the hardware -including the control board- I just need the WAV software is to record the Tidal HiFi downloads into a "standard" file format. I like WAV files myself.
To do so, this is my plan:
Currently I play Tidal Hifi and download (save the music) using an Android Tablet with of 1TB flash and a Nuforce HDP4 ( I got a better one... ).
That gets hooked up into the AUX input of my preamp.
I already have an M-Audio AD/DAC firewire with a laptop, hooked up as a "digital tape recorder" into the preamp. I have better hardware that I need to set up: RME AD/DAC over USB and a Dell MFF (Micro Form Factor) with a control tablet.
I've been using such "digital tape decks" over the years to record my LPs. I'm thinking that once I swap the new hardware (mostly to replace the Firewire with USB2) I will also record the Tidal master by playing them over the AUX input and recording them.
Why do this? Aaah... because the streamed downloaded music is in "special" format that can't be used by anything but Tidal's player. This way I'll be able to record all downstreamed music into 24/192 or DSD files. This will also work with my LPs.
I know, I know... DAC->AD/DAC sounds like a complicated thing to do... but, hey, I'm audiophile and I like wires, boxes, lights, switches, complications... and I got the parts, so why not use them?
Recently inherited (initially unwillingly TBH) A few hundred LP collection. All from late mid /late 60's to ' 82 ish.
Half were still sealed /never played. All were from recognisable labels and a n assortment of genres. Some surprising ones as well.
Clearly.. the owner seemed as more into collecting recordings than listening to them.
I had to resurrect my Vinyl gear to even try these things. Having been shelved for a couple of Decades or more.
Result?? An epiphany moment. .. many of them.
Vinyl ..at least in Pristine LP form is V V good sounding.
FAR better than My Cd's Or streaming sources.
Clearly I had Drunk the Kool Aid on Digital / Bought into the marketing.
How easily we forget.
Dynamics and reality in the music that simply 'ain't there ' in Digital ..
IMO now updated opinion; Vinyl is Every Bit as good as fanboys claim.
Assuming.. Worth Owning playback gear.
Which I suspect... not that many Audio Weenies actually possess .. Only thinking that they do
Half were still sealed /never played. All were from recognisable labels and a n assortment of genres. Some surprising ones as well.
Clearly.. the owner seemed as more into collecting recordings than listening to them.
I had to resurrect my Vinyl gear to even try these things. Having been shelved for a couple of Decades or more.
Result?? An epiphany moment. .. many of them.
Vinyl ..at least in Pristine LP form is V V good sounding.
FAR better than My Cd's Or streaming sources.
Clearly I had Drunk the Kool Aid on Digital / Bought into the marketing.
How easily we forget.
Dynamics and reality in the music that simply 'ain't there ' in Digital ..
IMO now updated opinion; Vinyl is Every Bit as good as fanboys claim.
Assuming.. Worth Owning playback gear.
Which I suspect... not that many Audio Weenies actually possess .. Only thinking that they do
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Recently inherited (initially unwillingly TBH) A few hundred LP collection. All from late mid /late 60's to ' 82 ish.
Half were still sealed /never played. All were from recognisable labels and a n assortment of genres. Some surprising ones as well.
Clearly.. the owner seemed as more into collecting recordings than listening to them.
I had to resurrect my Vinyl gear to even try these things. Having been shelved for a couple of Decades or more.
Result?? An epiphany moment. .. many of them.
Vinyl ..at least in Pristine LP form is V V good sounding.
FAR better than My Cd's Or streaming sources.
Clearly I had Drunk the Kool Aid on Digital / Bought into the marketing.
How easily we forget.
Dynamics and reality in the music that simply 'ain't there ' in Digital ..
IMO now updated opinion; Vinyl is Every Bit as good as fanboys claim.
Assuming.. Worth Owning playback gear.
Which I suspect... not that many Audio Weenies actually possess .. Only thinking that they do
At the very least, did you replace the cartridge? Their suspensions can get brittle and hard with age. At worst, that can damage the precious black gold.
Maybe most, but not all of them. Some record manufacturers support fully analogue recording when the customer wants that.
https://www.artone-studio.com/
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Going to be a little disruptive...here's the cheapest cassettes on proper decks with no noise reduction system activated:
Now honestly ...do you really consider digitalis poison the true killer one ?At least on the vinyl side I never find enough good cheap 45 rpm records...and there's nothing to make me favour a 33 ....Too much fuss about phono preamp and turntable quality with 33 rpm records.Put in a 45 disc and the cheapest dj console phono preamp with a 50 euro cart sounds better thana 10k phono setup.
So why would I bother with the low fi 33 vinyl format?
With a cassette...i can always use a noise remover vst on a soundcard and listen to the finest tape compression.
So why would I bother with the low fi 33 vinyl format?
With a cassette...i can always use a noise remover vst on a soundcard and listen to the finest tape compression.
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(1) A niche outfit that cuts LPs.
(2) The recording and mastering by their customers can be done with DSD, 24/96, 16/48, Half track analog reels, wax cylinders... they don't care.
What is in discussion here is the production (recording, mixing, processing) of the MUSIC. If it was done at high bit rate digital, then it's best kept in that realm. Not much to be gained, and all to be lost, by using an ADC in the production chain.
Very little new music is being recorded in analog nowadays, except some for some niche audiophile labesl I think Audioquest does that, but people like Classic Records are using old analog masters.
You ought to hear the Classic reissue of Elvis...
Thanks, but just to emphasise again, the point of this exercise is to record the best backup possible from the vinyl copy that I physically own. I possess FLAC files of the same tracks (i presume ripped from CD). Obviously I don't have access to the master, nor either do I know the master's format/bit rate etc are. Even for arguments sake, the master is only 16bit 44kHz, then it's kind of irrelevant, as I'm not even able to meet that benchmark with vinyl. I just want to get the best out of my record, as it's MY physical copy. To quote full metal jacket, "There are many others like it, but this one is MINE".
I've always heard obsessed audiophiles (who are usually going deaf from age) ramble on about how much better vinyl is compared to CD. So far my results haven't been successful. The inconsistent mixed messaging hasn't really helped either. But has been pointed out, my equipment and technique needs improvement, which i will address over time. So I think we've sufficiently covered that topic for now.
As for the many artist/album recommendations, cowanaudio is 100% correct. My mum probably has a few of those in her collection but it's not my thing. I respect and appreciate that high quality pure analogue is achievable, and I mean no disrespect but I honestly do not like, nor will I ever like that kind of music. So i'm sorry but I wont be going out to hunt Elvis records anytime soon.
I've always heard obsessed audiophiles (who are usually going deaf from age) ramble on about how much better vinyl is compared to CD. So far my results haven't been successful. The inconsistent mixed messaging hasn't really helped either. But has been pointed out, my equipment and technique needs improvement, which i will address over time. So I think we've sufficiently covered that topic for now.
As for the many artist/album recommendations, cowanaudio is 100% correct. My mum probably has a few of those in her collection but it's not my thing. I respect and appreciate that high quality pure analogue is achievable, and I mean no disrespect but I honestly do not like, nor will I ever like that kind of music. So i'm sorry but I wont be going out to hunt Elvis records anytime soon.
I've walked exactly the same road as you, about 20 years ago.
So what did I do? Well I currently have around 300 albums sitting in a box and no turntable. I used the DR databass to help find the least compressed digital versions of all the music I like to listen to. All the ones I could find now live on my music server in FLAC format for easy access and I don't dwell on the never ending debates and what ifs. I didn't keep a single digitized copy from my vinyl collection.
So what did I do? Well I currently have around 300 albums sitting in a box and no turntable. I used the DR databass to help find the least compressed digital versions of all the music I like to listen to. All the ones I could find now live on my music server in FLAC format for easy access and I don't dwell on the never ending debates and what ifs. I didn't keep a single digitized copy from my vinyl collection.
Because they are amateur. They are not counting sound engineer factor that can make the media recording not optimize. Example CD has at least 90 dB dynamic range but they used only 6 dB and sometime clip.
Amateur do not know how to compare technology.