A Phoenix record store owner set the audiophile world on fire
washingtonpost.com
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
#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 Esposito’s own lists of the best sounding analog albums...“One of the reasons they want to excoriate MoFi is for lying,” says Howarth. “The other part that bothers them is that they’ve been listening to digital all along and they’re highly invested in believing that any digital step will destroy their experience. And they’re wrong.”...And Randy Braun, a music lover, Hoffman message board member and lawyer in New York, hopes that, in the end, the MoFi revelation will prove what he’s been saying for years, that the anti-digital crowd has been lying to itself: “These people who claim they have golden ears and can hear the difference between analog and digital, well, it turns out you couldn’t.”"
Hard to imagine a better A/A-test.
Re: A Phoenix record store owner set the audiophile world on fire
#3"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…
That's a little simplistic. You can certainly tell the difference between a good analog recording played on a high quality system vs. an MP3. But once you throw enough samples and bit depth at it (more than are on a standard CD), you get quality that's equivalent to, or better than, most analog media.
Re: A Phoenix record store owner set the audiophile world on fire
#4"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…
That's a little simplistic. You can certainly tell the difference between a good analog recording played on a high quality system vs. an MP3. But once you throw enough samples and bit depth at it (more than are on a standard CD), you get quality that's equivalent to, or better than, most analog media.
>(more than are on a standard CD)
Sorry, but CD (16bit PCM) has better dynamic range than vinyl. The best vinyl systems can have dynamic range of around 80dB. 16bit PCM is 96dB.
Re: A Phoenix record store owner set the audiophile world on fire
#5"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…
That whole line of thinking just blows me away. It's possible to accurately sample and reproduce any vinyl recording in the digital realm. It's absolutely not possible to accurately record every digital recording onto vinyl. For instance, it's not hard at all to make bass so loud that it causes the needle to leap out of the track, or treble so high that the needle can't accurately track the high frequency vibrations.
In fact, part of the record player spec is the "RIAA equalization"[0] that attempts to account for the fact that vinyl isn't good at recording a wide range of frequencies well. On recording, you cut the bass and jack up the treble. On playback, you boost the bass and reduce the treble. Without that, vinyl would be even worse than it is today.
It's absolutely, 100% fine for someone to say that they subjectively prefer the sound quality of a record player to a CD. I don't, but that's fine: it's purely a preference thing. But to claim that vinyl is objectively better in some way is just ludicrous.
Re: A Phoenix record store owner set the audiophile world on fire
#6Re: A Phoenix record store owner set the audiophile world on fire
#7"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…
That's a little simplistic. You can certainly tell the difference between a good analog recording played on a high quality system vs. an MP3. But once you throw enough samples and bit depth at it (more than are on a standard CD), you get quality that's equivalent to, or better than, most analog media.
Telling this out loud upsets a lot of people, but I’m on the same boat with you.
A good lossless album, regardless of the medium played through shows a significant difference in soundstage given the system can handle the resolution thrown at it when compared with a MP3/M4A file.
Re: A Phoenix record store owner set the audiophile world on fire
#8Audiophools got played yet again.
Re: A Phoenix record store owner set the audiophile world on fire
#9> But these days, with the right equipment, digital recordings can be so good they can fool even the best ears.
"These days" being what, 1982-2022?
Re: A Phoenix record store owner set the audiophile world on fire
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's a little simplistic. You can certainly tell the difference between a good analog recording played on a high quality system vs. an MP3. But once you throw enough samples and bit depth at it (more than are on a standard CD), you get quality that's equivalent to, or better than, most analog media.
>(more than are on a standard CD) Sorry, but CD (16bit PCM) has better dynamic range than vinyl. The best vinyl systems can have dynamic range of around 80dB. 16bit PCM is 96dB.
Unless it’s brick-wall normalized during mastering.