Issue with dynamic range database

Is vinyl sometimes mastered with greater dynamic range than digital releases of the same album though? Many people believe that is the case.

This is certainly true; we always try to get the file with the least amount of DSP (other than normalization) when we are mastering an LP.

But in this case the files for the LP and digital releases are the same.  If the cartridge is a MM, distortion is pretty common if the cartridge was not loaded properly. That would show up as extra energy: more 'dynamic'.

It is not something you can modify so, who cares?

So how you can draw such conclusion - dynamic meter is false?

Steve didn't check to see how the loading was affecting the playback- in this case a high output MM cartridge was used. If you don't load those things they can make a considerable amount of lower ordered harmonic distortion which will be interpreted by the meter as 'dynamics' as its energy content not found in the original file.


The phono preamp can affect this as well depending on how stable its design actually is. The circuit needs to be immune to ultrasonic and RF energy that might exist due to the interaction between the inductance of the cartridge and the capacitance of the tonearm interconnect cable.

In a nutshell this is a red herring. The vinyl is in no way more dynamic- its just distortion. The funny thing about this is that in most audiophile conversations, the word 'dynamics' can be safely replaced with the word 'distortion' and the meaning of the conversation is unchanged.