Rubber Soul experiment

After the madness in this thread - http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threa...res-digital-while-chewing-out-gizmodo.409061/ - purely out of curiosity and not wishing to continue any debate on whether CD is good enough or vinyl is better or if HD files are worthwhile, I thought I would try to compare 3 different versions of two tracks from Rubber Soul. This isn't trying to prove anything. It's just a bit of fun!

Equipment used

Technics 1210 with stock arm, acrylic mat on top of thin slipmatt, Shure M97xE with vanilla stylus
Toshiba DVD recorder to play back CD
Cheap Numark mixer - M6 USB - using the analog outs not the USB out.
Zoom H2n recorder at 96k 24bit
Izotope RX used to view spectrum

Tracks - Drive My Car and Norwegian Wood.

The CD can not be ripped directly for this experiment. It has to come through (roughly) the same analog path as the vinyl to the recorder, once it has left the DVD recorder's analog outs.

One thing that is interesting to me is that the 80s CD version is actually generating some harmonics above 22.05k, most noticeable on the tambourine in Norwegian Wood. There is a jump in the spectrum from the top of the CDs freq range to about 37k where harmonics start to come in again. I assume that this is because of the brick wall filter of 44.1k digital audio causing ringing. In general, the frequencies produced appear weaker than either vinyl version, this may be a slight volume difference even though I normalised each recording and maybe the vinyl is slightly more compressed than the CD in this case. It's noticeably duller than it's vinyl counterpart, a night and day difference, even if I rip it and play it back through the same soundcard as the analog-to-96k rips. I think this is a roll-off of highs introduced for the CD master rather than a difference in sample rate.

The other thing is, the 1980s GM digital remix vinyl is actually generating way more top end than the CD, and is approaching that of the AAA vinyl. The tambourine is stronger in the digital vinyl again, whilst it's more flush with the rest of the high end in the AAA.

It's probably the case that GM mastered at 48k. This doesn't explain the extra stuff compared to the CD that is above 24k though. It's clearly related to the music and not just surface noise.

There is some opinion out there that digital sounds better when cut to vinyl. I think what's possibly happening is that the way vinyl playback works is recreating high frequency harmonics. They are not the original harmonics and probably nowhere near equivalent to the originals, but they are replacements if you like. The filter ringing is also probably cut into the vinyl to some degree but may not be as prominent when played back.

I'm posting this as it may be of interest to others, but please don't start bickering and getting this thread closed like the other one. Just suggest what you think may be happening, add more knowledge if you can. No trying to prove each other wrong, get your neutral heads on.

BTW, the CD channels seem to be swapped over compared to the vinyl. I've probably got a cable the wrong way around somewhere.

 

Fun? We're not supposed to have fun! We're supposed to rail on each other, argue over the most inconsequential BS and just be downright rude to one another.

 

Please close this. Please.

 

If people want to bicker they can go private message each other instead of polluting the thread.

 

That's strange. I'm not hearing any harmonics from my copy of Rubber Soul at 37kHz.

 

That is strange. Maybe a highly resolving system would help?

 

It think the harmonics at / above 37k are the result of the equipment I'm using distorting things somehow. You won't hear them anyway, that's wayyyy above hearing range for us humans. You might feel them though, if they were actually reproduced by your speakers. That's my own personal thought about it, not fact.

I've done some more digging. There is proven harmonic distortion from vinyl playback, which causes a lot of the high frequency harmonics. Some of this though, is the original harmonics. This isn't the case with the CD, but that has it's own distortion issues because of the sample rate and bit depth, plus it's missing anything between 22.05 and 24k that's on the 48k master.

 

And your point is... ?

 

Probably. I'm getting almost nothing above 18kHz.

Maybe I just don't have the ears.

 

I know I don´t. But sometimes I pretend.

 

Those harmonics are only audible on 8-track.

 

I love that we are discussing something as nit picky as harmonics between formats, yet the cables are reversed in one case lol

 

Put all of them through the best possible signal path for each format and show the results.

 

Of course in the case of vinyl we have a stylus that vibrates and resonates. That´s one nature of a stylus. Above musical content it´s not so easy to know what is vibrating and why and how.

Here is a plot from my Norw.Wood. Not so easy to know what is above 13kHz.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/39225261/Spectrum_Rubber_Norw.png