Vinyl or digital?

[John]

I think there is room for both; for me a well set up turntable with decent arm and cart phono stage etc will still out perform digital, but most of the music I listen is via digital and while it does not move me as much as analogue I still enjoy digital and guess that is the point to enjoy the music

[KMair]

I stole it from Kylie Minogue , actually from her dvd of the Light Years tour. Near the end of the song on the dvd she added "thank you for flying km air" and it sort of stuck in my head.

A true but funny story regarding her. She gets very little exposure in USA and I was only familiar with a couple of her songs. When the Fever albulm was released that was when I started hearing her music every where. At the time I was quite a completist when it came to collecting music and I set on the fence for awhile before deciding to commit to amassing her catalog. The first order I placed for 12" singles came in a huge box from a gentleman from New York. I will never forget rushing home from Post Office and the joy of listening to all that vinyl! It took 8 hours to play them all. Still play them regularly.

Cheers!




l

[Marco]

LOL. I had a feeling you were going to say Kylie (based on your avatar) but I couldn't get the "Mair" connection!

Nice tale

Marco.

[Iain Sinclair]

I'd say vinyl wins over CD in terms of sound quality, though I can listen to either format with pleasure. Also, some of my vinyl is fairly knackered, and the convenience of the CD format was just made for lazy sods like me.

[shane]

I will never forget rushing home from Post Office and the joy of listening to all that vinyl! It took 8 hours to play them all.

8 hours of Kylie on the trot? Blimey...

[niklasthedolphin]

I use all sources I can get my hands on, both analog and digital.

When it comes to user-friendly, convenience and editing the digital is superior.

When it comes to the potential of sound quality the analog is superior.

But for determining the last, you will need the best R2R master tapes and the best 32/192 or DXD 24BIT/352.8kHz.

Most people don't have R2R.
Then LP from the best master recordings will have to replace them.

Anyway......................even the best cassette recordings on the best cassette recorders will be superior to any CD played on any CD player or any digital music for that matter.

"dolph"

[MartinT]

For classical music I find that CD (and even more so SACD) is preferable to vinyl. For rock/pop etc. it's a close call and I'm happy to mix formats in a listening session.

[Neil McCauley]

The finest you say? The most musically engaging? Hmm - no contest gentlemen!

In pole position:

Peter McGrath's live orchestral uncompressed and unequalised recordings on his Nagra digital reel to reel tape machine. A rare and wonderful beast that Nagra is – and PG (Wilson Audio's director of sales) is a master of it.

Then ...

This is very closely followed by an experience Ricardo France-or-italy (Absolute Sounds)and I shared in the USA listening to a prototype and never released Krell DAT recorder/replay machine. Heartbreakingly wonderful. Uncle Dan saw that the writing was on the wall as far as DAT in the domestic arena was concerned.

Then ...

Any live BBC Radio 3 broadcast via my Trio KT917 FM tuner. Similarly with a Sequerra, heavyweight Sansui, or a Magnum Dynalab too I guess.

After that ...

A prototype DVD-A recording by Kostas Metaxas using his highly tuned Stellavox. He cracked it, and then no damn replay machines of worth.

The point being that sad to relate, the very finest sources are either now defunct, or getting that way. Moreover the majority of 'civilians' have never heard and probably never will hear the sheer wonder, majesty and energy of these other sources. Such a shame. Bose, i-pod and DDB (digital done badly) - step this way please.

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[alb]

Since we seem to have drifted on to best recordings.

The best i've heard, bar none, was a couple of cassette tape recordings, done about 25 years ago, on a cheap Pioneer recorder.
Using a simple Sony stereo mic centrally placed six or eight feet from the jazz/blues band.
Not a perfectly balanced sound, but more realistic than anything else i've heard.
Don't know how the engineers manage to cock up something which could be quite simple.

[Tony Moore]

Reminds me also of a recording I once made of the choir that my Mum sings in. I had a Sony DAT walkman and the Sony mic to go with it and they asked me to attempt to record one of their concerts.

Acoustics were poor from where I was able to site the mike, lots of audience noise, etc. However the actual recording was amazing! Listened to through headphones it was as if you were there in person. The ambience was incredible. You could even tell how far away the choir were! And the echoes of the hall sounded so real. There must'be been a lot of phase and timing information that was there that is simply not available with a multi-mic recording, all mixed down and messed up.

Through speakers though it did sound a little thin and unimpressive so I can see why people would compress and push the loudness.

That DAT machine was good. Pity the head went.