re: #136 NetworkKed

I’m a big believer in buying whole albums - the full artistic document.

In this moment, it’s usually cheapest to buy on used CD, and usually less hassle to rip then to fully download files that you purchase. I don’t like to do that for artists I like since used means they get no money, but for very old or random stuff, I’ll do it that way.

Eventually the used media prices will go up - there simply won’t be enough in the pipeline.

Vinyl has this rep as being higher quality - technically that’s true, but it requires an impossibly high standard of playback tools to get that quality out of it. I’d like to see music distributors offering higher-quality digital output instead.

Vinyl is not higher quality by any technical standard. The dynamic range is less than half that provided by CD and the frequency response is much worse. In addition, there are lots of distortions introduced in the vinyl playback.

Now, many people find the euphonic distortion present in vinyl playback to be pleasing, with a “warmer” sound. And many CDs were produced without proper remixing and equalization, giving them a harsh sound (or the CD “sizzle” done by some idiot producers), which was unpleasant to listen to for any length of time.

I used to digitize albums and then challenge people to tell the difference between the vinyl playback and the digital playback made from the vinyl. No one could do it, because the digital version included the euphoric distortions introduced by the vinyl playback.

Back in my audiophile days, I had multiple cartridges that I used on my turntable. The differences between the cartridges were obvious on a high quality system. And none of them provided a fully accurate playback.

Properly done digital recording will be very accurate and will be indistinguishable from the original source. The key is “properly done”. That’s often lacking.