@sandthemall I believe the RIAA curve is only applied during retrieval and not when cutting the record. No, that is not correct. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RIAA_equalization |
Unless the mastering is radically different between the vinyl and digital release, the vinyl version will always be worse than the digital version. First, you are listening to a recording of whatever DAC they happen to use in the pressing process. It may be a decent pro dac (who knows?) but it may not be as good as many of the dacs used by members of this forum. It then goes through a preamplifier, is EQ'd to apply the RIAA curve, further EQ'd to manage bass overload, stamped into a record blank, reverse EQ'd using the RIAA curve in your phono preamp, played back with wow and flutter, inner groove distortion, surface noise and tracking error from your stylus. Every one of those steps introduces exponentially more distortion. There is no way that playback of the same digital file without any of those additive distortions on a decent DAC will not sound better. Let me be clear. I love vinyl - it seems to be the best way we have to preserve analog recordings in a durable commercial format, and it sounds remarkably good given its inherent limitations. I also prefer vinyl to digital for analog recordings. It seems to retain a greater sense of "presence" and realism than digital, despite these obvious limitations. Vinyl is probably 80% of my listening. But for digital recordings, going straight to the source will always sound better. |
