Diff in recording/reproduction in Analog/CD/SACD

Interesting thread.

I respect that some people may prefer how Analog recordings or vinyl sounds, however, I maintain my view that Digital is an undeniable improvement over Analog (for many reasons).

Since the evidence is overwhelming and widely available, there is no point to delve into technical details of linearity, channel separation, signal to noise, dynamic range, and harmonic distortion issues from mechanical analog systems.

In any case, I can see that a technical argument will have little weight with those who categorically prefer vinyl/Analog and would claim that I am speaking nonsense.

As for myself, while I am willing to admit that the transfer of a limited number of older analog master tapes to digital has sometimes resulted in a reduction/less pleasurable sound quality compared to the original, I do not so easily dismiss all the technical evidence and wide professional audio recording industry support for Digital.

A properly recorded, mixed and mastered Digital recording is simply superior to what can be achieved with Analog.

Spoken like a guy who has not had a history with analog (and) digital.

The following from Digital Domain, the recording site

The Virtues of Analog Recording
Listening to a first generation 30 IPS 1/2" tape is like watching a fresh print of Star Trek at the Astor Plaza in New York. I believe that a finely-tuned 30 IPS 1/2" tape recorder is more accurate, better resolved, has better space, depth, purity of tone and transparency than many digital systems available today.

Empirical observations have shown that you need a nominal "24-bit" A/D to capture the low-level resolution of 1/2" 30 IPS. (If truth be told, the best converters only approach about 19-20 bit resolution in practice). It can also be argued that 1/2" tape has a greater bandwidth than 44.1 KHz or 48 KHz digital audio, requiring even higher sample rates to properly convert to digital.

Listening tests corroborate this. 30 IPS analog tape has usable frequency response to beyond 30 KHz and a gentle (gradual) filter rolls off the frequency response. This translates to more open, transparent sound than any 44.1 kHz/16 bit digital recording I've heard. 1/2" 30 IPS analog tape has lots of information, like high resolution 35 mm film.

16-bit 44.1 KHz digital is like low-resolution video. As higher resolution (e.g. 96 Khz/24 bit) digital formats become the standard, maybe then we'll be able to say that digital recording is better than analog. But don't be fooled by the numbers; there's still some "magic" in the coloration of analog tape that we have not yet been able to reproduce in an all-digital recording, especially for popular music forms that often crave the sound of tape saturation.

Analog tape has its own problems, but when operated within its linear range, unlike digital recording, it has never been accused of making sound "colder." However, digital recording has finally gotten good enough so that in acoustic music formats like classical and folk, some engineers are preferring digital recording's transparency over analog's warmth.

With this in mind and considering the writer is discussing 2005 technology against "antique" analog, what about the hundreds of thousands of songs recorded from 1986 to today that DID NOT have the benefit of recent digital technology?

That is, assuming the best digital is just now equal or below a master analog tape.

Analog is a very mature format. I have no doubt digital will surpass analog eventually but I don't want to listen to compromises in the meantime if an better alternative exists.

As I posted in the opening thread, It's more

What do you prefer to listen to?

Vinyl is only a distant cousin to 30 ips 1/2" analog tape. There is an enormous loss of information going from high speed wide format analog tape to vinyl. Redbook digital sucks, but the best that can be said about vinyl is that it sucks a little bit less.

Agreed,

I actually have a few 15 IPS safeties, and yes they beat the crap out of every other piece of software I have.

Albertporter....You know how I feel about vinyl surface noise :-)

Tape "Hiss" also annoys me. On many of my older LPs it is evident that even the master tape has hiss, because you can hear it cut in before the music. This problem was largely eliminated by DBX processing of master tapes, and Dolby in home playback systems. Are your 15"/sec tapes DBX? If not, is there hiss?