SH Spotlight What sounds just like the analog master tape: CD, Vinyl, SACD or a 1:1 analog Reel tape copy?

yeah maybe there is something about multiple sounds and reverb etc...all at once that even though it is still a sound wave, it somehow is beyond what CD can do perfectly, its hard to say knowing how the human hearing mechanism is. Or, maybe its something totally different.....that none of us are actually considering, if it was that easy, everything would sound the same or close, if we wanted it to...

 

The only thing that "bothers" me about DSD is that there is PCM-ing going on..(wish I had saved article) Sony admitted it was (PCM) in the chain. As far as DSD having "problems" in the highs..it is like you can hear the noise? Riiiiight! Above or near 20000hz you have to crank headphones..and later you don't know why you have a headache! LOL..Same thing (44.1 16bit) is good in the lows department..but..then one (feels) the really lows.... NOT hear them!..impossirous! My take..opinion. Great insightful thread btw! .

 

No.

It's possible you may be thinking of mixing requirements pre-Sonoma. There are many pure DSD SACDs.

 

Yeah...It just seems like basic common sense to me that you would have to alter the sound of something more to get it onto a vinyl LP simply to accommodate the mechanical limitations of the medium than you would in making a high resolution digital copy. This, of course, does not alter the fact that people enjoy the heck out of their vinyl. That aesthetic pleasure remains. However, in terms of scientifically measurable accuracy and ease of reproduction I don't see any scenario under which vinyl could win.

 

That was funny!

 

Based upon my experimentation with CD/SACD/DVD-A/Vinyl, I always felt high resolution PCM (DVD-A) was the least compromised in comparision to vinyl.

 

Good grief!

 

Not in the same sense that you're playing back an actual physically etched waveform, as is such with a phonograph. You can't shut the power off to a RTR, rock the reels back and forth and hear sound when you put your ear up to it. It's an electronic analog process. Perhaps others can expand on this.

 

How much degradation in the sound is there with production of the final LP?

 

Apart from an increased noise floor, hardly anything, if at all. This is assuming the record was manufactured properly at all stages of production.

 

Double Wow.

 

Wowie Zowie!

 

and there are many who don't...you always seem to forget this.

 

What might be interesting is comparing something originally recorded in DSD like a few classical records have been. At that point the SACD is the original master tape. I wonder how the vinyl would compare then.

 

There's no "wow" to it. If vinyl or any analog medium were capable of exactly reproducing anything whatsoever then one should be able to take any given CD, cut it to vinyl, make a "needledrop" CD from the vinyl and then come out with an exact sonic duplicate of the original source CD on the other side just as good as if you had taken the CD and burned yourself a duplicate in Nero.

 

Yes, there is definitely one thing that goes against any digital backup medoum: the fact that what moves the digital market is innovation and planned obsolescence. On the other hand, I think that the general move towards a more 'virtual' world only makes the problem more severe. The cultural legacy of previous eras was usually left on physical things, if a big bad thing happened to our civilization, there would be very little left of it but trash because nobody left would be able to reproduce (see/hear) most of the information we share today. We are a giant with feet of clay.

 

Don't worry, Lee, you are not alone on this take.

 

I've heard that there are many classic music recordings using the technology nowadays on SACDs in the market.

 

This is why I usually say that, at least to me, CDs sound 'flat' when compared to HiRez.

 

What I'd like to know is- given that vinyl sounds so good on its own- why does IT suffer some when put on CD? Would this happen if the needledrop was from the type of acetate Steve mentioned? Why do almost all the needledrops I've heard reveal themselves to be lifted from vinyl before even hearing a pop or a tic? Why do they sound so 'thunky' and lacking in clear highs and smooth, rolling bass? An example would be the mono I Fought The Law on that Warner Highs Of The Sixties disc, or the Bill Inglot remaster of The Happy Organ on the 1959 Billboard CD.

 

In my imagination I hypothesize that I would only be able to tell the two acetates apart with great difficulty if I could reliably tell them apart at all.