Skip to main content

Notice

Please note that most of the software linked on this forum is likely to be safe to use. If you are unsure, feel free to ask in the relevant topics, or send a private message to an administrator or moderator. To help curb the problems of false positives, or in the event that you do find actual malware, you can contribute through the article linked here.
Topic: Vinyl guide (Read 4269 times) previous topic - next topic
0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Vinyl guide

After some discussion with Canar and botface I have some tasks lined up for the vinyl guide. The primary goal here is to make the Myths article especially comprehensive, citable, and persuasive, because that is the highest profile page in the guide.

If you have any comments or suggestions on how to make the vinyl guide better, please let me know, or even make the changes yourself if you feel confident in them.

  • The argument for the first myth ("vinyl always sounds better than CD") is kind of forced and potentially insulting. Here is my explanation of what I'm trying to get at to botface, which might form the basis of a better line of arguing....
    Quote
    The whole notion of what is "superior" is kind of a tar pit. I don't think much can be gained by trying to get into specifics on what makes a format superior as objections will always be raised for any specific set of criteria on either side of the argument. One side is going to define it in terms of distortion and dynamic range and durability, the other side will dispute all of those definitions and add a few more besides, etc. If we're really forced to argue the point in those terms, I'd say it's better to just delete the entire point and forget about it.

    So I was trying to short-circuit the whole argument by framing it in terms of hubris - are they really suggesting that all us kids who grew up on CDs had inferior listening experiences to those of our parents, when our own experiences seem plenty authentic when listening to CDs? Are they really saying that we/our parents/etc bought into CDs while perceiving their inferiority, where no contemporary evidence of that view exists when CDs were introduced, outside of the audiophile industry? I find those points really compelling, and hopefully more compelling to the average nontechnical reader than more quantitative points.
  • The topic of groove wear is inadequately covered, and even some seemingly contradictory statements are made in some places. There should be a guide topic devoted to groove wear, with a comprehensive treatment, and the myths article should link to it.
  • Generally, every point in the Myths article needs to be backed up with references.
  • The discussion of adding a penny to the headshell might also want to include the Longhorn mod.
  • It might be a good idea to recapitulate some basic theory of control systems, to explain how different types of speed feedback (quartz-locked direct drive, servo-controlled belt, etc) work. This is a notoriously hazy topic in the high-end world.
  • Vinyl distortion/noise mechanisms need to be described in better detail, and in a closer comparison to CD distortion/noise mechanisms.
  • I'm thinking it might be a good idea to have specific pages for criticizing specific other sites, like one page devoted to the HowStuffWorks page, etc. But I might want to blog about that instead and keep the wiki free of sniping other sites. Certainly, the specific myths involved need to be debunked.