Vinyl's Noise Floor


vinyl's noise floorI'm actively considering returning to analog after a 19 year hiatus from it. I listen to a lot of classical music, which, as we know, has many pianissimo, i.e., soft passages. If the soon-to-be desuetude 16 bit format has an attribute, in my opinion, it would be an extremely low noise floor. I've read about the advantages of analog, the most salient of which is its innate sense of continuity and palpability. What concerns me about vinyl is its, supposedly, high noise floor.Assuming that the recording is of the highest calibre, the vinyl impeccably clean, and the analog rig unequivocally great, will there be even a modicum of distracting noise during a near-silent segment of music?
formulaone98f3

Showing 1 response by mikelavigne

consider how science and industry deals with isolation and "noise". at a laboratory or precision machine shop much effort and expense is expended on these issues. nothing is left to chance.

reading the groove of a vinyl record is just another technical challenge that requires first isolation; and then precise reading. in a cost-no-object situation you would first have considerable mass, then some sort of cushion of isolation, then another cushion of isolation for every moving part. then the item to be examined would need to be firmly held for maximum resolution. the reading probe would need to be very compliant and yet controlled for proper measurement at the desired resolution.

whether you are cutting something, useing an electron microscope, or any other precision operation, any deviation from uncompromised solutions to these issues would compromise the result.

turntable designs exist that meet these standards. in these designs the so-called noise-floor of the vinyl format is revealed to be mostly an issue of compromised designs, not an inherent characteristic of the format.

when hitting price targets, turntable designers balance various compromises to offer the best performance results for their priorities. with any compromises there is noise introduced.

this is not voodo, it is science. there are certainly software noise issues that exist, but they are very minor compared to the turntable design contributions to noise. this assumes a comprehensive approach to vinyl care (handling, cleaning, etc.).

if you want quiet vinyl playback, you can have it.

i would also add that once the noise-floor is lowered, there is way more information that is revealed to exist in those grooves.