Navigating the "Loudness War" and etc..

anathematized_one · 06-15-2013, 07:59 PM

Aside from what all others said...

If you have an average system, you won't notice much of a difference between vinyl and CD; realistically, you can only tell on a hi fidelity system. Go with the CD. In most cases, the change in sound quality is negligible.

I don't know about 1980's CDs being bad, I really can't see how they could be any worse than the record. Usually on vinyl, they didn't cut the bass as heavy because the lines would get too wide or deep or something, I don't exactly remember why, but I remember hearing this and that could explain remastering such albums rather than simply changing format.

Every time you play a a vinyl record, no matter how well you maintain it and your equipment, it degrades. For this reason, people used to only play their vinyl once to record it to a cassette tape. These degrade too, but not as fast.

Hell even today, I never open any album I purchase if I can find a download online and I burn it to a CD. The CD medium will never degrade when taken care of, but who has a room with climate control and can perfectly remove a CD from its jewel case perfectly every time and never touch the disk (front or back) and never put a scratch on it?

Remastered CDs are usually labelled with three letters, a combination of a's and d's. That tells you the process. Recorded - mix/master - this format. Usually you see ADD, which would he recorded on analogue, mix/mastered on digital, presented on digit (the cd). At least I think how that system works.

As far as analog vs digital, analog usually gives you a "warmer" tone, but this is far more important in debating tubed (analog) volid state (digital) guitar amps.

The biggest difference is caused by the way the sound is amplified. Digital has a hard, set limit and all exceeding gets shoved back. With analog, it is "physically" pushed back causing a slightly unevenand fluctuating response, aiding that warmer tone.

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GuitarBizarre · 06-16-2013, 05:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by anathematized_one

Aside from what all others said...

If you have an average system, you won't notice much of a difference between vinyl and CD; realistically, you can only tell on a hi fidelity system. Go with the CD. In most cases, the change in sound quality is negligible.

I don't know about 1980's CDs being bad, I really can't see how they could be any worse than the record. Usually on vinyl, they didn't cut the bass as heavy because the lines would get too wide or deep or something, I don't exactly remember why, but I remember hearing this and that could explain remastering such albums rather than simply changing format.

Not exactly. Records are cut to the groove after RIAA equalisation has been applied. This equalisation cuts the bass a ton, for a couple of reasons - 1 is, if you have a groove where the bass frequencies are very loud, then the groove becomes very wide and very deep, which can make the needle skip, and makes the record more susceptible to damage over time as the needle's movement is greater and more momentous.

The other reason is that if you make the bass frequencies quieter, you can make the grooves thinner, which means fitting more of them onto a single side, and getting more time out of the record.

Of course we don't hear this - the RIAA equalisation applied to the record is reverted, later in the signal chain, by the phono stage before the amplifier. This means there's no reason to cut vinyl with less bass than you would otherwise use, because this process eliminates the need to do that in all but the most extreme cases.

Every time you play a a vinyl record, no matter how well you maintain it and your equipment, it degrades. For this reason, people used to only play their vinyl once to record it to a cassette tape. These degrade too, but not as fast.

Hell even today, I never open any album I purchase if I can find a download online and I burn it to a CD. The CD medium will never degrade when taken care of, but who has a room with climate control and can perfectly remove a CD from its jewel case perfectly every time and never touch the disk (front or back) and never put a scratch on it?

Remastered CDs are usually labelled with three letters, a combination of a's and d's. That tells you the process. Recorded - mix/master - this format. Usually you see ADD, which would he recorded on analogue, mix/mastered on digital, presented on digit (the cd). At least I think how that system works.

As far as analog vs digital, analog usually gives you a "warmer" tone, but this is far more important in debating tubed (analog) volid state (digital) guitar amps.

The biggest difference is caused by the way the sound is amplified. Digital has a hard, set limit and all exceeding gets shoved back. With analog, it is "physically" pushed back causing a slightly unevenand fluctuating response, aiding that warmer tone.

I think a lot of analogue audio-heads would take issue with your analogy of Analogue Compression, but its roughly correct.

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06-15-2013, 07:59 PM	#1 (permalink)
anathematized_one Music Addict Join Date: May 2013 Location: Someplace Awful Posts: 123	Aside from what all others said... If you have an average system, you won't notice much of a difference between vinyl and CD; realistically, you can only tell on a hi fidelity system. Go with the CD. In most cases, the change in sound quality is negligible. I don't know about 1980's CDs being bad, I really can't see how they could be any worse than the record. Usually on vinyl, they didn't cut the bass as heavy because the lines would get too wide or deep or something, I don't exactly remember why, but I remember hearing this and that could explain remastering such albums rather than simply changing format. Every time you play a a vinyl record, no matter how well you maintain it and your equipment, it degrades. For this reason, people used to only play their vinyl once to record it to a cassette tape. These degrade too, but not as fast. Hell even today, I never open any album I purchase if I can find a download online and I burn it to a CD. The CD medium will never degrade when taken care of, but who has a room with climate control and can perfectly remove a CD from its jewel case perfectly every time and never touch the disk (front or back) and never put a scratch on it? Remastered CDs are usually labelled with three letters, a combination of a's and d's. That tells you the process. Recorded - mix/master - this format. Usually you see ADD, which would he recorded on analogue, mix/mastered on digital, presented on digit (the cd). At least I think how that system works. As far as analog vs digital, analog usually gives you a "warmer" tone, but this is far more important in debating tubed (analog) volid state (digital) guitar amps. The biggest difference is caused by the way the sound is amplified. Digital has a hard, set limit and all exceeding gets shoved back. With analog, it is "physically" pushed back causing a slightly unevenand fluctuating response, aiding that warmer tone. Sent from my SCH-S720C using Tapatalk 2 __________________ Sardonicus YouTube Channel