[10068]

Hello all, good afternoon!

Check it out: ThinkGeek :: Ion USB Turntable

So, it begs the question -- if you losslessly transfer Vinyl music into digital .WAV format, will it still have the same quality of sound that vinyl junkies have come to know and love?

 

[sejarzo]

No, why would it?

Unless it's the hiss, pops, and clicks that are on old, bad vinyl "that vinyl junkies have come to know and love"...then, sure, it transfers quite well!

Some will claim that vintage vinyl wasn't compressed during mastering,..but in general, it was compressed to get the quiet passages above the noise floor.

OTOH, the peaks were not pushed hard against the upper limit capabilities of the groove/stylus system all the time, in the way that crappy CD's all seem to be mastered with an overabundance of signal at the full 0 dBFS level.

 

[Tarkovsky]

It would be ignorant to claim that the bass response of redbook is equal to that of well done vinyl. Conversely L/R seperation is better / true in PCM.
I seriously doubt that this turntable has any audiophile use. Might be good for the casual listener though.

 

[Clutz]

If you wanted to get performance that exceeds that of CD you should probably increase the sampling frequency and bit depth of the recording.

 

[bigshot]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sduibek /img/forum/go_quote.gif So, it begs the question -- if you losslessly transfer Vinyl music into digital .WAV format, will it sill have the same quality of sound that vinyl junkies have come to know and love?

I have done it many times. The answer is yes. The sound advantage of vinyl is better mixing and mastering, not the capability of the format itself. A well captured LP sounds the same as the original LP... after a little bit of carefully applied noise reduction, it sounds even better.

See ya
Steve

 

[Zanth]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bigshot /img/forum/go_quote.gif I have done it many times. The answer is yes. The sound advantage of vinyl is better mixing and mastering, not the capability of the format itself. A well captured LP sounds the same as the original LP... after a little bit of carefully applied noise reduction, it sounds even better. See ya Steve

But don't expect it to sound the same on your system. Typical chain:

LP-->TT(cart, arm, table, cables) --> phono amp --> preamp if no phono input --> amp --> speakers

needle drop .wav --> dac --> preamp --> amp --> speakers

Notice the difference? The gear isn't the same all the way down the chain so the sound won't be either. It might be close but it won't be the same to the ears. However, what is on the LP should be the same as what is in the file as bigshot indicates.

 

[trains are bad]

Never use such an abomination...just use a regular old (better quality) turntable and a soundcard. The recordings I make with my soundcard and Technics SL1600 sound perfect. If the vinyl sounds better than the CD version (see: Brothers in Arms, Tubular Bells), the recording of the vinyl does too.

 

[bigshot]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zanth /img/forum/go_quote.gif But don't expect it to sound the same on your system. Typical chain: LP-->TT(cart, arm, table, cables) --> phono amp --> preamp if no phono input --> amp --> speakers needle drop .wav --> dac --> preamp --> amp --> speakers Notice the difference?

The only difference is the DAC. As long as the DAC performs flat and up to specs, it will sound identical.

See ya
Steve

 

[Zanth]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bigshot /img/forum/go_quote.gif The only difference is the DAC. As long as the DAC performs flat and up to specs, it will sound identical. See ya Steve

Good luck finding a cart/arm/phono that will sound like a dac... Even the most linear carts, the longest arms and the most neutral/linear ss phonos won't sound like a very linear dac. Instead of "like" I should use "the same." They will be similar but not enough to mystify folks into think they are hearing the same thing. Maybe some fancy equalizer could help.

 

[trains are bad]

Dude, the DAC is playing a recording of the the turntable. Think about it.

 

[edstrelow]

I am continually surprised at how good my vinyl sounds transfered to cdr via a $200 Teac stand-alone cd recorder. It is much better than transfers to cassette tape. Now I can play my lp's anywhere I have a cd player.

 

[memepool]

Quote:

Originally Posted by edstrelow /img/forum/go_quote.gif I am continually surprised at how good my vinyl sounds transfered to cdr via a $200 Teac stand-alone cd recorder. It is much better than transfers to cassette tape.

Sounds to me like you need a better tape deck

 

[Manny Calavera]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sduibek /img/forum/go_quote.gif Hello all, good afternoon! Check it out: ThinkGeek :: Ion USB Turntable So, it begs the question -- if you losslessly transfer Vinyl music into digital .WAV format, will it sill have the same quality of sound that vinyl junkies have come to know and love?

Seems a waist of time and energy.

 

[Stephen Murphy]

That $99 dollar piece of junk couldn't come close to extracting anything that is on an lp. Just get a vintage table and receiver with phono jack and use the tape out into a sound card.

 

[Tarkovsky]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bigshot /img/forum/go_quote.gif I have done it many times. The answer is yes. The sound advantage of vinyl is better mixing and mastering, not the capability of the format itself. A well captured LP sounds the same as the original LP... after a little bit of carefully applied noise reduction, it sounds even better. See ya Steve

Incorrect on both accounts. Due to the nature or 44.1/16 PCM bass under 40hz is compromised by lack of bandwidth. As amplitude*frequency=power deep bass requires greater amplitude (in this case word length) than the rest of the spectrum, which isn't available in 16bit when making sensible use of the resolution available. This isn't simply the folly of engineers. But vinyl has it's own limitations, and I'm sure you will find some cds sound better than their vinyl counterparts.