Vinyl sound quality?
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Vinyl sound quality?
Warning: Noob questions ahead
To be honest, I never really worried about sound quality before getting into electronic music but now I'm saving up for a decent soundsystem and I'm wondering if it's worth spending a little extra on a gramophone player?
I don't have a lot of vinyl records, only a few from when I lived at home with my parents and could play them on my dad's gramophone but if the sound is that much better, I would'nt mind buying my own gramophone and more vinyl.
So what's you opinion on vinyl vs digital quality?
Of course I'll do some research and comparisons myself but opinions from people who take good sound seriously never hurt anyone.
To be honest, I never really worried about sound quality before getting into electronic music but now I'm saving up for a decent soundsystem and I'm wondering if it's worth spending a little extra on a gramophone player?
I don't have a lot of vinyl records, only a few from when I lived at home with my parents and could play them on my dad's gramophone but if the sound is that much better, I would'nt mind buying my own gramophone and more vinyl.
So what's you opinion on vinyl vs digital quality?
Of course I'll do some research and comparisons myself but opinions from people who take good sound seriously never hurt anyone.
Re: Vinyl sound quality?
gramophone 1200.
Something a bit deep....
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Re: Vinyl sound quality?
Unless you're listening to WAVs, vinyl is quite a lot better. It'll sound even better in comparison if you're playing standard MP3s through a shitty soundcard from your computer too. The whole vinyl collecting thing is a massive money sink though, incredibly addictive. It's good being able to bag those limited press vinyl only releases though.
Re: Vinyl sound quality?

x2
+1elibomyekip wrote:Unless you're listening to WAVs, vinyl is quite a lot better. It'll sound even better in comparison if you're playing standard MP3s through a shitty soundcard from your computer too. The whole vinyl collecting thing is a massive money sink though, incredibly addictive. It's good being able to bag those limited press vinyl only releases though.
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Re: Vinyl sound quality?
Unless you have some very high spec kit a well mastered mp3 will be indeterminable from a wav. Both of which will sound better than you vinyl. I still buy vinyl but don't kid yourself into thinking your getting better quality sound or warmth from it. Any perceived warmth comes from the tops being rolled off at 16khz and resonance of the tone-arm. After a reasonable amount of plays the sound will of started to degraded and it's downhill from there with hiss, pops and crackles. Further to this Technics 1210/1200/Standard dj decks are not designed for audiophile playback, they are designed for djing ie. pitch control, stronger tone arms for scratching, tough build. Even with a high quality needle on a technics you've still not got a great sound coming from it.
So if you can buy the music that you want to listen to on cd buy it, if not buy 320mp3/flac/wav (boomkat is good for this), then vinyl if it's not available on anything else. Spend money on a decent amp and speakers, a decent soundcard and a turntable for those bits that you can't get anywhere else.
So if you can buy the music that you want to listen to on cd buy it, if not buy 320mp3/flac/wav (boomkat is good for this), then vinyl if it's not available on anything else. Spend money on a decent amp and speakers, a decent soundcard and a turntable for those bits that you can't get anywhere else.
Re: Vinyl sound quality?
i'm sorry but that's nonsense. even people who are sworn digital DJs will tell you that vinyl sounds betteraliasa wrote:Unless you have some very high spec kit a well mastered mp3 will be indeterminable from a wav. Both of which will sound better than you vinyl. I still buy vinyl but don't kid yourself into thinking your getting better quality sound or warmth from it.
also your point about a well mastered wav is key. this is quite often not the case whilst vinyl that's been pressed by a decent studio will have been properly mastered by someone who knows how to get the best possible sound out of the format
when swapping between vinyl and 320s on serato i can instantly tell the difference in sound quality and i've hardly got what you would call a trained ear
Re: Vinyl sound quality?
no. even on cheap speakers you can tell. its just the nature of the compression. that would be like saying a dvix is as good as a dvd iso....aliasa wrote:Unless you have some very high spec kit a well mastered mp3 will be indeterminable from a wav.
brasco wrote:evolution via youtube tutorials

Re: Vinyl sound quality?
The Technics SL-1200 MK2 MK3 MK4 MK5 M5G MK6 LTD & GOLD are a series of turntables manufactured since October 1972 by Matsushita under the brand name of Technics. S means "Stereo", L means "Player". Originally released as a high fidelity consumer record player, it quickly became adopted among radio and club disc jockeys.aliasa wrote:Further to this Technics 1210/1200/Standard dj decks are not designed for audiophile playback, they are designed for djing ie. pitch control, stronger tone arms for scratching, tough build. Even with a high quality needle on a technics you've still not got a great sound coming from it..
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Re: Vinyl sound quality?
badger wrote: i'm sorry but that's nonsense. even people who are sworn digital DJs will tell you that vinyl sounds better
At outlook this year they were using thier own rig they'd brought over from the uk along with serato SL3 I believe. If they felt vinyl sounded better i'm sure it wouldn't be much of a struggle to bring over a couple of crates along with the rig.mungoshifi » Tue May 05, 2009 1:25 pm wrote:
we use traktor skratch as well as vinyl and were recently testing cut dubplates against wav versions and one thing was clear, the only audiable difference over the soundsystem when the dubplate was synced with skratch was the bass was rolled off slightly on the dub.
I know, this is why i specifically said a well-mastered. A well mastered mp3 will be mastered differently to a well mastered wav. If you played all three side by side (vinyl, mp3 and wav) there would be more difference between the wav and the vinyl than the mp3 and the wav.badger wrote: also your point about a well mastered wav is key. this is quite often not the case whilst vinyl that's been pressed by a decent studio will have been properly mastered by someone who knows how to get the best possible sound out of the format
Re: Vinyl sound quality?
Vinyl is gets the real representation of the source.
WAV & MP3 are made out of 010001101101
there is no other sound source out there that can fully capture the real waves except....
vinyl & tape!!!
this is not to say that you will notice the difference though.
shit, most people cant tell the difference between the way a wav & mp3 sound,
let alone, understand how the analogue & digital wave forms are made!
!!chea
p.s. bullshit a wav is better than vinyl!!!
WAV & MP3 are made out of 010001101101
there is no other sound source out there that can fully capture the real waves except....
vinyl & tape!!!
this is not to say that you will notice the difference though.
shit, most people cant tell the difference between the way a wav & mp3 sound,
let alone, understand how the analogue & digital wave forms are made!
!!chea
p.s. bullshit a wav is better than vinyl!!!
http://www.dubstepforum.com/viewtopic.p ... 8&start=20
DSF TUNE BATTLE ROYALE 2!!! starts 11-03-11 @ 23:59GMT
DSF TUNE BATTLE ROYALE 2!!! starts 11-03-11 @ 23:59GMT
Re: Vinyl sound quality?
First link if you google audiophile, technics and 1210egoless wrote:The Technics SL-1200 MK2 MK3 MK4 MK5 M5G MK6 LTD & GOLD are a series of turntables manufactured since October 1972 by Matsushita under the brand name of Technics. S means "Stereo", L means "Player". Originally released as a high fidelity consumer record player, it quickly became adopted among radio and club disc jockeys.aliasa wrote:Further to this Technics 1210/1200/Standard dj decks are not designed for audiophile playback, they are designed for djing ie. pitch control, stronger tone arms for scratching, tough build. Even with a high quality needle on a technics you've still not got a great sound coming from it..
http://www.discogs.com/groups/topic/155536
Re: Vinyl sound quality?
The source being a computer almost 100% of the time whihc works in 1's and 0's. I don't think i know of any dubstep that is recorded to dat.Sirius wrote:Vinyl is gets the real representation of the source.
WAV & MP3 are made out of 010001101101
there is no other sound source out there that can fully capture the real waves except....
vinyl & tape!!!
this is not to say that you will notice the difference though.
shit, most people cant tell the difference between the way a wav & mp3 sound,
let alone, understand how the analogue & digital wave forms are made!
!!chea
p.s. bullshit a wav is better than vinyl!!!
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Re: Vinyl sound quality?
Oh yeah THIS matters when we're working with ELECTRONIC music made of 100010111001Sirius wrote:Vinyl is gets the real representation of the source.
WAV & MP3 are made out of 010001101101
there is no other sound source out there that can fully capture the real waves except....
vinyl & tape!!!
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Re: Vinyl sound quality?
More regurgitated crap posted by people who don't have a clue.
I've made a reply in a thread like this before, but think about this: the VAST majority of electronic music producers make their music digitally and render their music digitally. In other words, they mix down straight to wav/aiff, usually in 44khz/16bit. This will be further mastered if it gets a proper release, but unless the chain is all analogue (like AFX's analord releases or those sexy Fortune8 12s by Lee Purkis) then this whole "made out of 010001101101" stuff is exactly what your music is made from. The original wav is the closest that you'll get to the artists original vision for how the music should be. Vinyl doesn't magically make music sound superior.
Vinyl is all about the distortion and colourisation of the sound. This isn't strictly a bad thing and some music sounds "better" because of the high end rolloff inherent with vinyl. Just like old dub records actually sound nicer on tape, because the hiss really adds to the whole thing. But let's be serious people, vinyl as a format is just another lossy format in the chain. Anyone who claims otherwise needs to learn some facts and not just spew out the same spiel that they were led to believe by others.
I've made a reply in a thread like this before, but think about this: the VAST majority of electronic music producers make their music digitally and render their music digitally. In other words, they mix down straight to wav/aiff, usually in 44khz/16bit. This will be further mastered if it gets a proper release, but unless the chain is all analogue (like AFX's analord releases or those sexy Fortune8 12s by Lee Purkis) then this whole "made out of 010001101101" stuff is exactly what your music is made from. The original wav is the closest that you'll get to the artists original vision for how the music should be. Vinyl doesn't magically make music sound superior.
Vinyl is all about the distortion and colourisation of the sound. This isn't strictly a bad thing and some music sounds "better" because of the high end rolloff inherent with vinyl. Just like old dub records actually sound nicer on tape, because the hiss really adds to the whole thing. But let's be serious people, vinyl as a format is just another lossy format in the chain. Anyone who claims otherwise needs to learn some facts and not just spew out the same spiel that they were led to believe by others.
Re: Vinyl sound quality?
I just did a module on audio quality on my degree and as one part of it we had a listening session where we were blinded as to what was what.
On most of the music played everyone picked vinyl as being the most pleasing sound quality. Not all albums sounded best on vinyl but most did.
However you really are kidding yourself if you think that vinyl is in any way more accurate because it's analogue or something. I mean the sound of a track is coloured hugely by process of playing it off a record. It just happens to sound good.
On most of the music played everyone picked vinyl as being the most pleasing sound quality. Not all albums sounded best on vinyl but most did.
However you really are kidding yourself if you think that vinyl is in any way more accurate because it's analogue or something. I mean the sound of a track is coloured hugely by process of playing it off a record. It just happens to sound good.
Re: Vinyl sound quality?
I should have read this before posting. It's entirely right,dr h wrote:More regurgitated crap posted by people who don't have a clue.
I've made a reply in a thread like this before, but think about this: the VAST majority of electronic music producers make their music digitally and render their music digitally. In other words, they mix down straight to wav/aiff, usually in 44khz/16bit. This will be further mastered if it gets a proper release, but unless the chain is all analogue (like AFX's analord releases or those sexy Fortune8 12s by Lee Purkis) then this whole "made out of 010001101101" stuff is exactly what your music is made from. The original wav is the closest that you'll get to the artists original vision for how the music should be. Vinyl doesn't magically make music sound superior.
Vinyl is all about the distortion and colourisation of the sound. This isn't strictly a bad thing and some music sounds "better" because of the high end rolloff inherent with vinyl. Just like old dub records actually sound nicer on tape, because the hiss really adds to the whole thing. But let's be serious people, vinyl as a format is just another lossy format in the chain. Anyone who claims otherwise needs to learn some facts and not just spew out the same spiel that they were led to believe by others.
vinyl is less accurate compared to a wav. It just can sound nice
Re: Vinyl sound quality?
aliasa wrote:don't kid yourself into thinking your getting better quality sound or warmth from it. Any perceived warmth comes from the tops being rolled off at 16khz and resonance of the tone-arm. After a reasonable amount of plays the sound will of started to degraded and it's downhill from there with hiss, pops and crackles. Further to this Technics 1210/1200/Standard dj decks are not designed for audiophile playback, they are designed for djing ie. pitch control, stronger tone arms for scratching, tough build. Even with a high quality needle on a technics you've still not got a great sound coming from it.
dr h wrote:
I've made a reply in a thread like this before, but think about this: the VAST majority of electronic music producers make their music digitally and render their music digitally. In other words, they mix down straight to wav/aiff, usually in 44khz/16bit. This will be further mastered if it gets a proper release, but unless the chain is all analogue (like AFX's analord releases or those sexy Fortune8 12s by Lee Purkis) then this whole "made out of 010001101101" stuff is exactly what your music is made from. The original wav is the closest that you'll get to the artists original vision for how the music should be. Vinyl doesn't magically make music sound superior.
Vinyl is all about the distortion and colourisation of the sound. This isn't strictly a bad thing and some music sounds "better" because of the high end rolloff inherent with vinyl. Just like old dub records actually sound nicer on tape, because the hiss really adds to the whole thing. But let's be serious people, vinyl as a format is just another lossy format in the chain. Anyone who claims otherwise needs to learn some facts and not just spew out the same spiel that they were led to believe by others.
lol ,Irony.dr h wrote:More regurgitated crap posted by people who don't have a clue.
Stuart Hawkes disagrees with you
" Vinyl is an extremely high quality medium "
http://www.redbullmusicacademy.com/vide ... _me_do_it/
Last edited by 101010 on Fri Oct 08, 2010 4:14 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Re: Vinyl sound quality?
That's crazy talk. Why don't you briefly summarize your understanding of how mp3 compression works and then reflect on how it necessarily reduces audio quality.I know, this is why i specifically said a well-mastered. A well mastered mp3 will be mastered differently to a well mastered wav. If you played all three side by side (vinyl, mp3 and wav) there would be more difference between the wav and the vinyl than the mp3 and the wav.
Vinyl will never have the accuracy of wavs but we all like the hi end roll off and a bit of texture.
brasco wrote:evolution via youtube tutorials

Re: Vinyl sound quality?
Try again people, vinyl mirrors a sound's waveform more accurately than a cd can.wolf89 wrote:I should have read this before posting. It's entirely right,dr h wrote:More regurgitated crap posted by people who don't have a clue.
I've made a reply in a thread like this before, but think about this: the VAST majority of electronic music producers make their music digitally and render their music digitally. In other words, they mix down straight to wav/aiff, usually in 44khz/16bit. This will be further mastered if it gets a proper release, but unless the chain is all analogue (like AFX's analord releases or those sexy Fortune8 12s by Lee Purkis) then this whole "made out of 010001101101" stuff is exactly what your music is made from. The original wav is the closest that you'll get to the artists original vision for how the music should be. Vinyl doesn't magically make music sound superior.
Vinyl is all about the distortion and colourisation of the sound. This isn't strictly a bad thing and some music sounds "better" because of the high end rolloff inherent with vinyl. Just like old dub records actually sound nicer on tape, because the hiss really adds to the whole thing. But let's be serious people, vinyl as a format is just another lossy format in the chain. Anyone who claims otherwise needs to learn some facts and not just spew out the same spiel that they were led to believe by others.
vinyl is less accurate compared to a wav. It just can sound nice
Re: Vinyl sound quality?
It is colourisation. Nothing more, nothing less. Vinyl is a high quality medium, but assuming it magically makes electronic music sound better is just nonsense.101010 wrote: Stuart Hawkes disagrees with you
" Vinyl is an extremely high quality medium "
http://redbullmusicacademyradio.com/shows/1141/
Acoustic or analogue music is a different story entirely. But the moment you introduce digital into the chain, you can forget about any benefits it offers.
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