Canuck Audio Mart

I may be late to the conversation here, so if this has been discussed else where please let me know. I've seen some discussions about vinyl rips vs CD's, but I'm wondering whether anyone has done any serious comparisons between hi-res (eg: 24/96) vinyl rips played through a digital server vs the real thing played on a turntable?

If you're playing them through systems of comparable quality (dac vs phono stage) is there much discernible difference? Anybody converting their LP's to hi-res digital?

I love needledrops, my preferred digital source in 24/96 and I listen from my PC to my stereo.

I n'drop LPs every week and lots of guys here do so as well. Hopefully pneumonic will chime in soon about doing them with much higher end gear than I do.

I've been dropping vinyl for several years, and at 24/96 for over a year with a pro ADC. I've not had the chance to A/B the differences directly in my big rig but I can say the quality of AD/DA conversion is of paramount importance. It's also very expensive because it has to be converted both ways, not just the one.

My opinion, for what it's worth, is that with the proper investment in equipment a pleasing result can be had, but it won't be indistinguishable from the original. No copy ever is.

The benefit is that you don't have to sweat it trying to find that CD copy of "Obscure Billy", only to find that it has been remastered and compressed beyond recognition. You get what reminds you of your own disk, played on your own table.

So you'd better like the sound of your table.

What is the "real thing"?

Most, if not all music recordings since the late 80's are digital.

If you own analog recordings recorded since then, they started out as a digital master.

With every conversion from digital-analog, and vice versa there is degradation, it is a matter of how much you are willing to loose...

This is very true, but more obvious when dropping at 16/44, especially with the early digital recordings.

Analogue recordings do come across better.

Thanks for all the replies. When I said "real thing" I simply meant playing a record on a turntable, as opposed to playing a digital copy of the same record. It might seem pointless to play a copy if you have the original, but there's no denying the convenience factor of playing digital files. So if you can get sound that is very close to the original, and perhaps remove some of the more annoying clicks and pops with software, then it's something I might like to try.

Andrew, here's a sampling from my collection done with a Mytek Stereo96 ADC. It'll give you an idea of the possiblities/limits. The track is from Pat Metheny's Bright Size Life.

Download 07 - Omaha Celebration.flac from FileFactory.com

*beware...it's 87 MB!

Thanks for the sample. I'm not really setup to give it a proper evaluation, because right now I'm just running a cable from the headphone jack of my mac mini to my amp. However, even with that it still sounds very nice. I can only imagine what it sounds like through a good DAC.

Cheers,

Andrew

Hello arossphoto. Are you getting any noise through your headphone jack? Does your mini have any other jacks you can use?

Thanks, me too. I listen to it on my PC system, which is not too bad, but am considering ways to wifi the signal to a DAC on the big rig. Squeezbox Touch is the most likely candidate, but add the wifi xmitter and a quality DAC and you can see why I haven't done it yet.

No noise that I've noticed. The headphone jack is the only way I know to do it without a DAC or something between the computer and the amp. It actually sounds surprisingly good, but it is bit harsh and fatiguing for serious listening.

When I first started getting into this I bought a DacMagic on a bit of an impulse, because I thought that's what I needed. However, I was somewhat underwhelmed with the results especially compared to what I was getting out of the headphone jack by itself. I mostly used the Mac Mini for background music then, so I sold the DacMagic. Now I'm looking at bit more seriously at the possibilities of digital and thinking about upgrading that side of things.

Cheers,

Andrew

The DacMagic was probably a nice interface between the Mac and your stereo. Really probably comes down to what you are feeding it. Low to medium quality rips probably won't benefit from an external DAC. I use an Airport Express to feed my iTunes stream to my stereo. Only use the audio output on the Airport however...it doubles as an optical jack so I could play around with some DACs if I chose to do so.

I could write volumes on this subject but it's summertime and I'm between holidays so all I have time to say is to echo what others have already stated ....... if you want a "real thing" drop then get a "real thing" ADC. Those who do will tell you they are worth every $ you shell out for them and then some.

Just an aside, if you do grab hold of a top ADC and have access to a properly designed DAC on the other end, then the sample rate/bit depth is a non issue. 16/44 is perfectly fine and more than adequate, maybe even preferable depending on which DAC you are using. I should qualify this by saying this is only true (16/44 being perfectly capable) if you you aren't sample rate converting or applying large amounts of dither or post recording processing to the drops. Then you are better off recording at the sample rate/bit depth that you plan on playing your files back at.

The other neat thing with drops is you can remaster your music however you wish it to sound. You can change it drastically or you can record it so that it is indistinguishable (yes indistinguishable) from the record including all of the colourations your vinyl rig adds to the music.

If you are referring to a digital copy of an LP... I still think the LP is better. Yes, a very good copy can be made with high end computer components & DACs, but at the end of the day I still like the vinyl better.