Best quality source of classic rock albums? + Format discussion. - General

I'm heavily into 60s, 70s, and 80s rock. I collect a lot of vinyl, and then rip it (transfer to digital). I'm not anti-CD nor an audiophile. I prefer CDs, but sometimes the original mixes or transfers on Vinyl sound way superior to the latter CD releases, especially for the older albums (late 60s/early 70s) The 1973 vinyl copy of Dark Side of the Moon, or some of the older Led Zeppelin albums, to me are far superior on vinyl... while say some of the later albums to come out in the 80s, sound the same on CD or better than the vinyl. What do you think of SACD? Is the added 'resolution' really audible or necessary? I really don't think so. I like the idea of surround sound mixes (a few of which were released on both DVD-A and SACD), but other than that I hear no difference between those formats and CD, nor see any other benefits. Vinyl has made a comeback, is it really necessary? Compact Disc is capable of 44 Khz, 16 bit/96 dB lossless audio. Studies say we can't hear above 44 kHz, and I don't think I can hear anything passed 70 dB, but maybe my headphones or hearing sucks. Non the less, if that is true, than CD should be quite adequate. I've read that Vinyl is only 70 dB/12 bit, but not too sure how accurate that is, but it does have noise which would sort of reduce its range. In the spectrogram, they appear to have double the frequency range than CDs, but its all tones we can not hear. Audiophiles claim they still matter and that we can sub-consciously feel them. W/e the f*** that means. I call bullsh*t. I say, Vinyl is a superior format for my cats.

I may invent a drinking game Read a thread about vinyl and take a shot every time you see the word "superior" Also I'm partially deaf so I can't pick out all the little differences between vinyl and cd so I don't really give a fuck about audio quality, I 'm more of a collector I'm sure someone with absolutely perfect hearing would be able to notice the wider range of frequencies on a record but for most of us the differences are minimal. Oh and decibels are a measure of volume, you most certainly can hear stuff above 70dB because it's [i]really loud[/i]

Actually one of the first things we were taught at uni in sound production is that the lowest bass range and highest treble range, which contain the sounds which are just [I]barely[/I] distinguishable, can add a sense of liveness and vibrance to the sound that is being played.

My record player is shit but I like records, to a large extent, for the sentimental value, I admit that much. that said, I still listen to at least a record a day or so. [editline]15th August 2011[/editline] and I own roughly 100 records excluding the ones I never listen to that I keep at my mom's house out of state [editline]15th August 2011[/editline] I mean it's pretty much a matter of fact that something that was made purely through analog means will be of higher quality than something purely digital until sound tech reaches a level where it is able to replicate such things. I don't care for stuff like surround sound mixes or DVD audio. CBA to deal with that shit lol. Listening to music on a DVD player is more awkward than vinyl imo

[QUOTE=CoolCorky;31742156] I'm sure someone with absolutely perfect hearing would be able to notice the wider range of frequencies on a record but for most of us the differences are minimal.[/QUOTE] I disagree. CDs are 44 kHz. Vinyl is anywhere between 64-88 kHz So the difference between the two when it comes to frequencies, is the range above 22,000 hz. Majority of studies average human hearing between 20 to 20,000 hz. The additional frequencies are pretty useless for us humans. Great for the pets. Dogs and Cats can hear the additional high frequencies that are played on the record. [QUOTE=CoolCorky;31742156]Oh and decibels are a measure of volume, you most certainly can hear stuff above 70dB because it's [i]really loud[/i][/QUOTE] Oops, my bad. I forget the negative integer. Correction, I can't hear anything quieter than -70 dB, at least on my audio setup here. [QUOTE=Vedicardi;31743987]I mean it's pretty much a matter of fact that something that was made purely through analog means will be of higher quality than something purely digital until sound tech reaches a level where it is able to replicate such things.[/QUOTE] Don't forget that resolution still applies in the world of analog. And you can fit more digital data on a format or signal than analog. Digital tech already has surpassed the resolution of Vinyl. In the retail market, we've got a max resolution of 24 bit or 32 bit float; 192 kHz; with up to 8 channels in surround sound.