Re: Question about the treble limits used in CDs and the vinyl rips
Reply #1 –
Vinyl is able of frequencies up to 25 kHz, by design a CD is limited to half of the sample rate (44.1/2) but in practice a bit lower as a filter needs some space say, it starts to roll of sharply at 21 kHz.
But both values are above the upper threshold of our hearing.
The dynamic range of a CD is 16*8 = 96 dB, vinyl can have a dynamic range of 70 db but 50 dB is in practice a common value.
The big question is, are you listening to the same masters?
This not easy to establish.
I do think CDs are often a slightly remastered version of the original tape.
At least there is no RIAA correction applied, a must when cutting vinyl.
The vinyl playback chain will have an influence as well.
As you mentioned, the cartridge will have its coloration, likewise the RIAA correction of the phone stage might color.
If you truncate from 24 to 16, dither is recommended to get rid of the quantization noise.
In the pas it was wise to stick to integers say 192 > 96 > 48 and 176 > 88 > 44 because of badly programmed re-samplers.
I don’t think SOX has this problem.
You can load the tracks in Audacity to compare them.
A spectrum analyses is also useful.