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A Phoenix record store owner set the audiophile world on fire

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Re: A Phoenix record store owner set the audiophile world on fire

#191

Post by mrandish »

KennyBlanken wrote: post #155
mrandish wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can also bake analog sounding warmth into your hi-res digital master and it's done all the time. There are a wide variety of different digital mastering plug-ins which do remarkably sophisticated analog modeling. Ultimately, this boils down to signal which vibrates speakers. As a thought experiment, if you use some kind of theoretically perfect surface-sampling laser to capture every movement of the speaker surfa…

> Individuals can prefer different sonic characteristics encoded in an output but that's an aesthetic choice. I find that listening to one of three different sources (earbuds, gaming headset which is EQ'd via open source software, and inexpensive-but-fancy headphones) causes me to adjust to that particular set of headphones' sound. It seems to be like the equivalent of our brain continuously auto-white-balancing our…

Absolutely, personal sonic character preferences can vary per content, listening context and the play back device (plus play back signal chain like DACs, pre-amps etc). And it's not just personal taste, most human's bio-based input 'hardware' varies enough to matter, especially for those of us who are out of warranty (ie >40 yrs old). There are even interactive apps which will give you a quick hearing self-test and build an EQ profile based on your individual response curves. I use one bundled into Android and it definitely improves my listening experience.

Re: A Phoenix record store owner set the audiophile world on fire

#192

Post by [deleted] »

gwern wrote: post #2

"The fallout of the MoFi revelation has thrown the audiophile community into something of an existential crisis. The quality of digitized music has long been criticized because of how much data was stripped out of files so MP3s could fit on mobile devices. But these days, with the right equipment, digital recordings can be so good they can fool even the best ears. Many of MoFi’s now-exposed records were on Fremer and…

[deleted]

Re: A Phoenix record store owner set the audiophile world on fire

#193

Post by jamiek88 »

gerdesj wrote: post #182
jgust wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a certain ceremony involved with choosing and playing vinyl that cannot be recreated with digital media. That, to me, is the magic. In modern times a full digital setup is going to provide a more "faithful recreation" than anything analog.

Been there. Browsing vinyl involves flipping fore and aft and is very tactile. Browsing tape and CDROM involves running your eyes over them but you can run a finger along them to get another sense involved. Loading a record is quite the event: slip out of the card sleeve, then slip the dic out of the waxed paper sleeve and pop it on the spindle without scratching it. There is of course the correct way to handle them…

I did the same as you but iTunes Match for $25 per year is my ‘vault’.

It’s very convenient especially now that lossless is an option.

Re: A Phoenix record store owner set the audiophile world on fire

#194

Post by netr0ute »

Sporktacular wrote: post #186
bayindirh wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

However, you can’t change the mastering of the album you have bought. When the CD version of the album you have bought has subpar audio quality, the abilities of the medium has no value and importance.

"When the CD version of the album you have bought has subpar audio quality" Yes, but these mastering choices could apply to the vinyl version too. In other words, your response had nothing to do with a comparison of the two media.

> could apply to the vinyl version too

They can't, because these choices create enough volume for the needle to go haywire, so mastering always has a better dynamic range.

Re: A Phoenix record store owner set the audiophile world on fire

#195

Post by Dylan16807 »

wolrah wrote: post #148
kazinator wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, if the artifact you prefer actually exists and you can confirm it in a double blind test.

You're not wrong in the general "audiophile" world where fools and their money are parted over snake oil magical cables claiming benefits only those with the most golden of ears can enjoy. Where you're getting pushback is that this thread is talking about vinyl records and tube amps, things where the noise and distortions introduced by their operation are well known, well documented, audible to anyone with normally f…

It's relevant to the article, where a digital source made from a tape should sound the same as the tape.

Re: A Phoenix record store owner set the audiophile world on fire

#196

Post by jamiek88 »

mrandish wrote: post #115
Edman274 wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A digital recording has to be mastered with the understanding that it could end up getting played on a car stereo, on a bluetooth boombox, on cell phone speakers, in bluetooth earbuds, at a dance party with a DJ or on a hi-fi stereo setup that looks like the one from the old Maxell "blown away" ad. A recording on a vinyl record doesn't. The person mastering a record doesn't need to care about bluetooth earbuds, car s…

> They can tune their mixing and mastering decisions to just the case of a hi-fi stereo setup with an enthusiast listening. This is what audio purists should be asking for. Let's pay the creative production team to create and release a high-fidelity digital mix optimized for us. No concerns about radio play, boomboxes or loudness wars. Just their original creative intent.

If tidal offered that it would be good value and a real differentiator.

Re: A Phoenix record store owner set the audiophile world on fire

#197

Post by Sporktacular »

Any article involving high end digital vs. analogue audio is guaranteed to spawn a huge HN discussion about how gullible audiophiles are vs. how high quality audio is more subtle than a few good numbers.

You can count on it, like a precisely timed quartz oscillator. And as long as the power is on, it likewise will never be settled.

Re: A Phoenix record store owner set the audiophile world on fire

#198

Post by swores »

ben7799 wrote: post #117

Audiophile is full of nonsense but one of the more hilarious ones in something like this where the goal is "no digital" is it's been a long time since you could guarantee there was no digital going on between the instrument and the master. They talk about Thriller a lot. Is it possible to have a completely analog copy of Thriller if it turned out a guitar went through a digital rack unit or a digital synthesizer was…

I don't agree with the "no digital!" crowd, but surely their claim is that digital can't accurately reproduce the original intended sounds, so (even if they were right) that wouldn't make them need to boycott anything where the original intended sound includes something produced digitally? It's not like they're claiming to be allergic to digital noise, just that it loses fidelity in the transfers.

Re: A Phoenix record store owner set the audiophile world on fire

#199

Post by jamiek88 »

floren wrote: post #181
apohn wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The fallout of the MoFi revelation has thrown the audiophile community into something of an existential crisis. Don't worry, the crisis will not last long. Audiophiles will find a way to get over it and buy some better cables that would have revealed they were using a Digital source all along.

Cables are all well and good, but the quest for perfect audio will continue until somebody invents a gadget which makes you 15 years old again, hanging out in your friend's basement, having just tried pot for the first time and hearing Led Zeppelin III on a cheap Sears record player. I don't know exactly what this gadget will look like, but it's the only thing that will get audiophiles the sound they've been chasing.

Yes, there’s deffo something to that.

Hence the cassette revival for those of us of a certain vintage.

Re: A Phoenix record store owner set the audiophile world on fire

#200

Post by Dylan16807 »

TylerE wrote: post #51
doix wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So it's been many years since I looked at this stuff, but the reason for higher sample rate isn't to do with humans being able to hear over 20khz. If you sample at 44khz you need a high pass filter at 22khz to avoid aliasing. Since that's pretty close to 20khz, it needs a pretty sharp drop off. Having a filter with a sharp drop off can introduce artifacts. With 96khz sampling rate, you don't need as a sharp drop off…

Yes, i hate when people talk about Nyquist as if its some Panacea. Its vwry “spherical cow”. It assumes all your filters, DACs, are perfect, and that time is infinite.

You only need so much margin, though.
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