In Rainbows

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I've always been a bit of an audio nut so I've always invested my money in good gear. Even when it comes to CD players you can hear a difference, in my case, when comparing my Denons to an off the shelf Teac or Philips. Yet, even with all this new technology, we still can't match the sound and feel of a piece of 12" vinyl spinning atop a decent direct drive platter, through a perfect diamond tip cartridge.

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Wain wrote:

mmmmmm...I need a new turntable, I just inherited a large collection of pristine quality opera recordings.

Can't go wrong with a Technics SL-1200 MKII ;-)

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motorollin wrote:
Just out of interest I have just checked on Amazon for vinyl versions of some of the albums I have in my collection. They are so expensive! I know vinyl is thought to have a tonal quality which can't be matched by CDs, but even so I can't justify spending nearly three times the amount on a vinyl copy. Besides, why can't an amplifier approximate the sound of vinyl using some kind of effect?

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moto

You can't replace the missing "bits" ;-)

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motorollin wrote:
No, but you can make up new ones :-) I'm not really familiar with the sound of vinyl, being a child of the digital age, but I'm led to believe that vinyl has a more "warm" sound compared to the "cold" sound of digital audio. So again, why can't DSP on a CD player approximate that quality?

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moto

Simply because a turntable is an analogue device, you hear everything that is pressed into the vinyl. Best way I could describe it is like comparing a sign wave to a bar graph. Sure the bar graph can follow the curves of the sign wave, but you loose the smoothness in the process.

As cassette tapes did away with vinyl and CD's did away with cassette tapes, you are in a prime position to see it all happening again as compressed audio and NVRAM take the place of CD's. Its not audio quality that the mass market wants, its convenience.

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motorollin wrote:

That makes it very clear - thanks! Surely this is a matter of "resolution" though? Make the "bars" on the "bar graph" narrower (and more of them) and the digital representation of the wave, and would therefore sound closer to the vinyl version. Right? And I guess that's roughly how DVD audio works?

To a certain degree, yes, it can be achieved, cue DVD audio, however, I honestly think we are a long way off.

Shame! And you're making me want to buy a turntable and find out for myself how it sounds :-)

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moto

Hire one and see for yourself ;-)

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Wilse wrote:

I have a pair of Technics. One 1200, one 1210, bought a few years apart.

Not an outstanding record player by any means but does a decent enough job for me and is unbeatable for DJ-ing, IMHO.

TBH, the only pro grade turntable I've ever used is the 1200 MKII, besides that its a mixed bag of off-the-shelf brand direct drive and belt drive turntables. IMHO, your choice of cartridge has more to do with the actual audio output than the turntable itself. As for DJ'ing, I've been looking at what Vestax has to offer and they look pretty damn good, just gotta get off my backside and try 'em out ;-)

I'm also cataloguing my vinyl collection. I've got through 700-odd 12" singles so far. A few more to go, then albums, 7" and 10" singles.
Should be finished by the end of the decade. ;-)

Two words...Good luck!!! ;-)

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motorollin wrote:
Getting back to In Rainbows for a moment, I must make sure I don't listen to it on public transport again. I listened carefully to "Nude" on the train this morning and it made me cry. Quite embarrassing :lol:

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moto

Pull yourself together man...For gods sake, your British! :lol:

Speaking of Rainbow, I saw some clips from that show on YouTube recently, now that almost made me cry, pretty damn cringeworthy too :lol: