1. Home
  2. misc-audio
  3. 126413-87702

Vinyl VS Digital

After 20+ years I broke out my turn table from the 70's again.  I have been mostly listening to CD and streaming music for the last 15 years on higher end gear in a dedicated and treated home theater room.  I also have a dedicated two channel system in the same room.  

All the hype surrounding analog has prompted to me to purchase a dedicated preamp so that I could once again hook up my TT.  I also purchased an Aurlic Aries to compare.  I'm ready to upgrade my old Technics SL 1600 MK2 running a Grace Cartridge.  But I have concerns.  

I could care less about the additional hiss, crackle and Pop thats not in digital.  I think its cool to put on an album and just listen to my 30 year old small collection from when I was a teenager.    

I started doing A/B comparisons by switching between the TT and the Aries (FLAC).  I even bought new vinyl to do so.  The thing keeping me from going "All In" is the imaging.  No matter what I do with (aligning the cartridge), I cannot get the imaging to match that of digital.  Specifically, voice and instrument that stems from center stage with digital cannot be reproduced with the TT as source.  One might say the stage is wider but its too wide to point where definition is lost.  Don't get me wrong it still sounds good but is it right?  Is it my TT or is it in the recording.  Or is this the difference I am suppose to be hearing?


  
ap_wannabe
daverz
477 posts
 
The 1600 seems to be highly regarded on VinylEngine:

https://www.vinylengine.com/turntable_reviews.php?make=Technics&model=SL-1600
tutetibiimperes
202 posts
 
I’d always imagined vinyl devotees were a bit deluded, after all, on paper CDs absolutely destroy the specs of vinyl in terms of channel separation, dynamic range, and frequency response, how good could be a format that traced its origins back to the 19tn century?

I had a wake-up call after hearing some of the set-ups at AXPONA.  While most rooms had moved to streaming or servers, and some had ridiculous turntables that looked to be over four feet tall and probably cost as much as a house, the Focal room had a Clearaudio Innovation with their Virtuoso V2 cartridge and it sounded amazing through the Focal Sopra 3s.  

I don’t know if I’d say it was better than a well mastered CD or lossless digital file, but it was at least as good.  

Still, I don’t think I’ll be getting into vinyl, though I can see the appeal.  For me the startup cost is too high, and then there’s the cost of the actual records.  A Bluesound Node 2 and a Tidal Hifi subscription gives me all of the music I could want for a low cost, though I suppose it could be cool to drop the needle and sit back and watch the record spin while I listen.  

elizabeth
6,726 posts
 
My vinyl gear and digital gear are about equal. Different sounding for certain, but both very good. For ease of use I play CDs most of the time.
I own (from a high of 13000, weeded out now down to only) 4,000 LP and 2500 CDs.
The old LP vs CD is not really resolved. Each one has some joy, each one has some flaw. Enjoy!
basement
245 posts
 
wow. It's been awhile, but I guess the debate still exist. 

Short version: there is much more actual information on vinyl than there is with digital, so it takes a lot less money and effort to build/buy an analog rig than a digital one. But once a certain "level" is obtained in an analog (records) rig, there is no digital that can sound as good. 

It's been a long time for me, just getting back into it, Barely learning about streaming and such. But what is surprising, is nearly 10 years later, digital seems to sound worse than it ever did. Even though more "bits" are available, the streamers and streaming systems I have heard don't sound as good as the cd players to me. 

Shouldn't be hard to get an anolog record player to blow away the imaging and pinpoint soundstaging of a digital rig, as well as being nuetral at it. And fun to get there.
syntax's avatar
syntax
2,033 posts
 
Before I am going to buy a vinyl record I'll buy the same title 2.hand cheap at ebay. For a sound check. When it is flat, compressed, lifeless.... I'll throw it away (95%) and don't buy the record ( when it is done after 2005).
Digital saves me a lot of money.
More to discover