Do Remastered Records Sound Better? - A Hoffmanite worthy article

A great example is the Lindsey Buckingham/Christine McVie album, that is DR 11 for vinyl, but DR 6 for digital. When you listen to both, you are struck but the better dynamics of the vinyl. Night and day, at least for this record.

 

You may be thinking of this thread: Is the DR database really accurate for vinyl? This link is to page 42, because going there first may save you some time; you can backtrack, depending on your appetite for argy-bargy.

 

Agreed on the White Album, but not in the case of Pepper. That one is really loud! The EQ is very unpleasant in the high mid range as well.

 

The RIAA curve that's applied on most phono stages is the reason. It boosts the bass and tames the treble. That's not a flat representation of what's on the record. There is no such curve on other inputs on a receiver. So if the same master is used for both formats, it won't sound the same.

Ahhh! seed_drill beat me to it!

 

Still none the wiser! So digitally sourced vinyl should sound identical to the CD version aside from the normal vinyl playback characteristics and it cannot possibly be more dynamic etc?

Lots would disagree here even if the vinyl DR numbers are inaccurate....

 

This is far from a universal opinion.

 

This is half-truths reaching an incorrect conclusion.

Simply put, the RIAA EQ curve is a two-step process. The first - the pre-emphasis - attenuates low frequencies and increases high frequencies during cutting. The second - de-emphasis - is performed by the phono stage and reverses the EQ applied during pre-emphasis If properly applied at the cutting and playback stages, the net result will be flat frequency response and the LP will have the same tonal charateristics as the tape. However there can be differences depending upon the quality of the phono stage and cartridge, etc.

[I now see seed-drill’s explanation...that is correct]

 

Another factor is the quality of the DAC used in the vinyl cutting process vs the quality of one’s home DAC...

The DRs for vinyl can be slightly higher for vinyl, but they are often the same as the digital source and are rarely have a delta of more than +1 for comparable original sources.

 

Maybe on the CDs, but the vinyl of the remixes sound fantastic...

 

Or if you just personally ENJOY playing records over CDs.

 

Fact.

 

I like my original Ludwig vinyl though...

 

Nothing can save the Pepper remix IMO. The vinyl is just a slightly lesser version of aural fatigue.

The White Album is comparatively better, but I still prefer the original mix.

 

Ummmm....

 

The mixes themselves are fantastic.

The mastering on the CD/commercially available digital is crap, but...that's usually the case, anyway.

All the more reason to work that turntable.

 

I prefer the mono of both. YMMV.

 

The RIAA curve is applied during cutting of vinyl and is not on any master. No CDs were made with RIAA curve applied, but they were sometimes made from masters that had regular EQ moves printed.

This is what the curve looks like (as seen it is quite severe, having just one of the two steps applied would be unlistenable):

 

Fact.

 

Most probably a mismatched RIAA equalization curve.
Note that this is not done on the master 2 track tape. The RIAA curve is part of the lathe audio signal chain.

Here's some of what I posted last October on this subject:

VINYL:
For instance what a lot of people hear as "warmth" is actually a mismatch of the RIAA curve that was developed to roll off the bass and boost the highs to allow 30 or so minutes of audio on a single 33RPM LP

RIAA equalization - Wikipedia

"RIAA equalization is a form of pre-emphasis on recording and de-emphasis on playback. A recording is made with the low frequencies reduced and the high frequencies boosted, and on playback the opposite occurs. The net result is a flat frequency response, but with attenuation of high frequency noise such as hiss and clicks that arise from the recording medium. Reducing the low frequencies also limits the excursions the cutter needs to make when cutting a groove. Groove width is thus reduced, allowing more grooves to fit into a given surface area, permitting longer recording times. This also reduces physical stresses on the stylus which might otherwise cause distortion or groove damage during playback.

A potential drawback of the system is that rumble from the playback turntable's drive mechanism is amplified by the low frequency boost that occurs on playback. Players must therefore be designed to limit rumble, more so than if RIAA equalization did not occur.

RIAA playback equalization is not a simple low-pass filter. It defines transition points in three places: 75 µs, 318 µs and 3180 µs, which correspond to 2122 Hz, 500 Hz and 50 Hz (rounded values).[2] Mathematically, the pre-emphasis transfer function is expressed as follows, where T2=318 µs, etc.:[3]


"


Here's the curve as the other post mentions:





And this is the type of deck used for vinyl mastering - note the preview head and tape loop with variable tape delay path - this allowed preview of the audio to set groove pitch depending on the amplitude of the cutter:



Note that it's a Studer A80 ... one of the best analog machines in pro audio. A few other tape mfg's made vinyl mastering 2 tracks.

The larger rollers are called impedance rollers... they add a bit of rotational mass to the tape motion in order to smooth out things like wow and flutter...

Note the labyrinth the tape follows - this is to allow a "preview" of the audio spectral content and so that the cutter drive motor logic can adjust the pitch of the groove that's being cut. There's two repro heads - one preview and one used for the actual audio signal chain

This preview takes into consideration the RIAA curve that's being used by the lathe.

Also note that due to the limitations of grooves in LP microgroove topologies, there are additional limiters and other dynamic processors used to ensure good groove geometry.

There's some great photos of groove pitch on this site (linked to from Steve's main page):
Groove Pics

Example from that page:

Above picture is a tone sweep from low frequency (top) to high frequency. Note the pronounced increase in curvature as the frequency increases.

 

Really interesting... thanks for explaining a common misperception!

 

Another disk mastering machine - from MCI
MCI JH-110M Disc Mastering Reproducer

 

The original vinyl's the way to go sure.

 

I’ve purchased the vinyl numerous times based on some raving review about how much better it is than the vinyl. Always disappointed

 

Any examples?

 

The vinyl is always better than the vinyl, except when it's not?