Re: WSJ asks Why Vinyls Boom Is Over
Reply #115 – 2017-08-02 19:40:36
Sidenote: Almost bizarre to tell guruboolez how something sounds. I doubt there are many people out there on the internet ever provided as good detailed listening test results and artifact descriptions on a solid verifyable basis over many years as he did. Yeah, yeah, but we still don't know what arm, cartridge and phono preamp he used, now do we? That critical information is far more important than say 60db vs 100db dynamic range, audible vs inaudible levels of distortion, timing errors, etc Who knows, he could have been using lowly zip cord for wires too! Thank you Wombat. Ten years after my last tests people haven't forgot me @ajinfla As I said before my experience is based on: — a single personal experience which I can't tell anything about (it was good hardware even if you can't buy a Ferrari for the same price) — exemples of downloaded stuff. I don't have them anymore, so I can't describe it nor tell anymore what exact model of every piece of hardware they used. But among the recording process you always have cleaning fluid, expensive cartridge, audiophile wires etc, etc… You can easily find exemples of them but searching for DSD128 (maybe 256 now) or 352/32 LP rips on sharing site. There's nowadays a kind of race in sound quality / technical demonstration and every ripper want to outperform all rivals. Anyway my point was to answer to the poster who answered that vinyl can sound with a nice dynamic to someone who remind that CD has a much better signal to noise ratio, which is the true technical word for dynamic range. Unless you or someone else can bring some evidence that specific cartridge, specific phono preamp or whatever may overcome the known limitation of LP format (~60 to 70 dB of theoretical SNR, and practically less) and therefore allow it to reach the CD transparency (96 dB, up to 112 with dithering and noise shaping) I have no interest to further discuss this point. It's a fruitless debate. The obvious is that LP is by far a less transparent media than CD. It may be transparent enough on Iron Maiden (I like this band since 25 years so it's not an insult) but the limitation are obvious on every piano, or symphony, or string quartet, or opera recordings. For this kind of music quiet parts are countless and CD was the very first popular media which sounded and still sounds perfectly transparent. Some classical lovers may prefer the sound of LP for some reasons, but it can't be for dynamic, transparency or even fidelity.
Wavpack Hybrid: one encoder, one encoding for all scenarios WavPack -c4.5hx6 (44100Hz & 48000Hz) ≈ 390 kbps + correction file WavPack -c4hx6 (96000Hz) ≈ 768 kbps + correction file WavPack -h (SACD & DSD) ≈ 2400 kbps at 2.8224 MHz