Noticed something interesting tonight, analog affect?

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by GuildX700, Feb 20, 2017.

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  1. GuildX700

    GuildX700 Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    USA
    Had several friends over for a get together earlier tonight, had food, drinks, playing some pool, air hockey & fooseball & chatting along with some music playing. NO TV! :magoo:


    Anyhow I played a few Rhino/Billboard Greatest Hits CD's as we were playing the games, but I'm missing a few in that collection on CD but I do have them on cassette tape, they are decent recordings, these are prerecord Rhino, & they use good tape and HX PRO. So with no shame I popped the tapes in.

    Anyhow, I couldn't help but notice quite a few of the folks made their way to some seating and sat down to specifically listen once the tapes were playing. Same music era, just different format.

    Now I'm the first one who is not completely impressed with prerecorded cassettes, but when done up right they do occasionally seem to have that "thing", that elusive inviting analog sound. It may have been a coincidence, but it seemed like a switch was flipped once the tapes rolled. It drew in listeners.

    I'm going to pay more attention to this from now on.

    Lets see what vinyl does next time I have a get together. :shrug::unhunh:
     
  2. Strat-Mangler

    Strat-Mangler Personal Survival Daily Record-Breaker

    Location:
    Toronto
    In some cases, digital has that hardness to it I find hard to describe. It's a turn-off and once I heard vinyl after almost 2 decades of exclusively "hard" sound, it was a revelation!

    Music sounded like music again. Lots of people just out digital music as background noise now. My wife actually sits down when I put vinyl on but doesn't seem to do so when I play digital files of any kind through the same setup.

    I don't personally believe it's a coincidence.
     
  3. pathguy

    pathguy Forum Resident

    Location:
    Liverpool, NY
    I don't think it's a coincidence at all. I've experienced the same phenomenon you described, only with some of my own "mix tapes" from 30 years ago. Cassettes can sound great, too!

    For some reason, I have 4 vinyl copies of Carole King's Tapestry and a couple of them on CD (one is from the 2-CD set A Natural Woman/The Ode Collection. I also have an 8-track version of it, but no player. I bought it for fun :righton:). The vinyl ranges from a pretty early (and by no means mint) Ode70/A&M pressing, a plain Ode/A&M pressing (after they dropped the "70"), and a couple of pressings after Ode was distributed on Epic/CBS. Each of the pressings--to my ears anyway--are a bit different, with the older A&M pressings sounding the most similar. I'm not sure what the procedure was or if there were any mastering "tweaks" when another pressing was done, but my point is: at least on my system, I much prefer the vinyl versions of this album over the CD versions. Perhaps it's because the music was originally sourced analog? Would be a neat experiment to do with a digitally-sourced album, too. Come to think of it, I'm sure someone on this forum has done that....;)

    I did this comparison awhile ago though; I think I need to revisit and compare again to figure out which pressings I found more engaging.
     
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  4. GuildX700

    GuildX700 Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    USA
    What was nice was this was simply casual listening, it started as just background party music so there was no pressure to "hear" or "not hear" something.

    And everyone was relaxed and chilling, enjoying the game tables so the mood to listen seemed to be good from the start of the evening, it was mainly a consensus to play the Billboard Top Rock "n" Roll Hits CD's to start the evening with too.


    Now I don't know if the cassette tapes were from a digital source or not, or if the mix style was the same as what the CD's have, the dates on the tapes were late 1980's.

    The one I really play a lot for my own listening is the 1972 one, and when that one came on is when folks really started to slowly gravitate away from the game tables and to various seating.

    [​IMG]

    This system has my best cassette deck and best digital source, Pioneer Elite PD-S95 CD transport into a Musical Fidelity late model M1 DAC, and the tape deck is the highly regarded Aiwa XK-S9000 FWIW.
     
  5. enfield

    enfield Forum Resident

    Location:
    Essex UK
    The fact is that a fair amount of recordings DO sound 'hard' or less than perfect..A CD player will just play back very accurately what is on the disc.(Be it good or bad).Vinyl playback due to several factors (Natural HF roll-off ,Slight lower-mid softening,inner-groove distortion,less loud remasters,the romance of seeing a lovely record gently rotating on the turntable.The pleasant and nostalgic organic background noise.etc.etc).These can make certain recordings more easy to listen too,if slightly less accurate and neutral.Not criticizing vinyl or analogue. I personally really like the sound also, but i don't think its fair to criticize CD for just because it doesn't add too or influence the information on the disc in the way some other formats can do.
     
    Ephi82 likes this.
  6. action pact

    action pact Music Omnivore

    The OP's story was interesting, but do we really need another analog vs. digital thread?
     
    Ephi82, Rolltide, bradleyc and 4 others like this.
  7. Dennis0675

    Dennis0675 Hyperactive!

    Location:
    Ohio
    I've had the same thing happen repeatedly, analog holds people's attention much better.

    If the comparison between digital and analog is a 30 second clip or a graph, digital is often the clear winner. When is comes to listening to an album start to finish, that will happen much more often with analog.

    My contention is that a vibrating needle makes a more natural sound wave than a chip reading bits of information. It has to do with how the brain processes sound. Analog is less work for your head.
     
  8. bluemooze

    bluemooze Senior Member

    Location:
    Frenchtown NJ USA
    :agree:
     
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  9. Chris Schoen

    Chris Schoen Rock 'n Roll !!!

    Location:
    Maryland, U.S.A.
    It's different, maybe not better, but different. I prefer almost any analog source to digital. Seems more natural sounding.
     
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  10. Chris Schoen

    Chris Schoen Rock 'n Roll !!!

    Location:
    Maryland, U.S.A.
    Yes, the needle is like another instrument, so it IS more natural from a physical "music making" standpoint.
     
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  11. Pinknik

    Pinknik Senior Member

    Well, we haven't quite settled it yet. This thread could be the one.


    :D
     
  12. Chris Schoen

    Chris Schoen Rock 'n Roll !!!

    Location:
    Maryland, U.S.A.
    Interesting that informally, people are compelled to listen to analog.
     
    GuildX700 likes this.
  13. Dennis0675

    Dennis0675 Hyperactive!

    Location:
    Ohio
    It will most certainly turn to a "vs" thread but it is interesting how house guests respond differently to analog playback.

    I by no means have world class equipment but I've been buying equipment that isn't from a box store for over 30 years and I got my first turntable about 4 hears ago. Getting people to pay attention to music happened much less frequently before I started playing records. To battle this I just kept turning up the volume, getting bigger amps, adding subs and playing concert videos.

    Those days are long gone.
     
    GuildX700 likes this.
  14. action pact

    action pact Music Omnivore

    It is an interesting topic; I hope that the focus of the discussion can be maintained.
     
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  15. Chris Schoen

    Chris Schoen Rock 'n Roll !!!

    Location:
    Maryland, U.S.A.
    I found the biggest attraction to the music I have played has been when it is something people are familiar with.
    A few years ago, my brother in law was visiting, I knew he liked Steely Dan, so I figured I'd spin some original vinyl.
    He probably had not heard music from a record for a long time. The guy just stood there for about a hour saying nothing,
    which is very unusual...
     
  16. eddiel

    eddiel Senior Member

    Location:
    Toronto, Canada
    Anecdotally? Yes. Proper testing wise..has there been any proper testing?

    There could be many reasons why they sat down to listen to the cassette copies. The mastering on the cd could worse or perhaps at that point they were tired of playing games, etc and wanted to sit down and listen. It's a shame the OP didn't put a cd back on after everyone sat down. :)

    BTW, I'm a fan of all formats.
     
    Scott222C likes this.
  17. Chris Schoen

    Chris Schoen Rock 'n Roll !!!

    Location:
    Maryland, U.S.A.
    Generally preferring analog to digital, this does not surprise me. I have some cds that are excellent also, depends on the mastering.
     
    GuildX700 likes this.
  18. Scott222C

    Scott222C Loner, Rebel & Family Man

    Location:
    here

    Nah, People were just getting tired is all ................... :wave:
     
    krisbee likes this.
  19. Tim 2

    Tim 2 MORE MUSIC PLEASE

    Location:
    Alberta Canada
    Anything different and people will sit up and take notice. Doesn't mean the music was more involving.
     
    MaxxMaxx4 likes this.
  20. ls35a

    ls35a Forum Resident

    Location:
    Eagle, Idaho
    People used to say, 'Come on over tonight, we'll listen to some records'.

    No one ever says, 'Come on over tonight, we'll listen to some cd's'.
     
    Thing Fish, Drifter, Tim 2 and 2 others like this.
  21. krisjay

    krisjay Psychedelic Wave Rider

    Location:
    Maine
    Obviously just my opinion, but, I don't get very much emoitional or physical connection with digital music. It can sound fine, but there is a true and obvious (to me) difference in the response my mind and body have to the same record depending on whether it is analog or digital. I'm not stating one is better or worse, but it is a real difference, to me, at least.
     
  22. Alert

    Alert Forum Resident

    Location:
    Great River, NY
    I've observed that as a party moves along, and people drink a bit more, they become more responsive to the music.

    I'm not saying that's what happened at your get-together, just what I've observed at mine.
     
    Dennis0675 likes this.
  23. Catcher10

    Catcher10 I like records, and Prog...duh

    Has nothing to do with one being better than the other......has to do with one is more engaging than the other.

    I like many, keep my digital player going for background music. Right now I am working from home and have it playing, almost all of my digital collection I have on vinyl and not once do I find myself leaving my desk to go and sit closer and just listen to my digital player.
    We have been bombarded with digital music files everywhere, for what 30+ yrs......TV, Movies, Mall, Music stores and anything online and of course the CD.

    I'm old enough to know the difference having grown up on vinyl/analog.......There is a more engaging experience to be had.
     
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  24. timind

    timind phorum rezident

    Maybe they were tired and needed a rest.:shrug:
     
  25. timind

    timind phorum rezident

    People don't say either of those now. People don't listen communally anymore the way they used to.
     
    Manimal likes this.
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