Vinyl VS Digital


After 20+ years I broke out my turn table from the 70's again.  I have been mostly listening to CD and streaming music for the last 15 years on higher end gear in a dedicated and treated home theater room.  I also have a dedicated two channel system in the same room.  

All the hype surrounding analog has prompted to me to purchase a dedicated preamp so that I could once again hook up my TT.  I also purchased an Aurlic Aries to compare.  I'm ready to upgrade my old Technics SL 1600 MK2 running a Grace Cartridge.  But I have concerns.  

I could care less about the additional hiss, crackle and Pop thats not in digital.  I think its cool to put on an album and just listen to my 30 year old small collection from when I was a teenager.    

I started doing A/B comparisons by switching between the TT and the Aries (FLAC).  I even bought new vinyl to do so.  The thing keeping me from going "All In" is the imaging.  No matter what I do with (aligning the cartridge), I cannot get the imaging to match that of digital.  Specifically, voice and instrument that stems from center stage with digital cannot be reproduced with the TT as source.  One might say the stage is wider but its too wide to point where definition is lost.  Don't get me wrong it still sounds good but is it right?  Is it my TT or is it in the recording.  Or is this the difference I am suppose to be hearing?


  
ap_wannabe

Showing 5 responses by ap_wannabe


Has anyone else heard a sound stage difference between the same recordings at the same volume vinyl versus CD.  It is so pronounced in my system. On digital recordings its as if I had a center speaker playing.  On albums there is no center speaker.  
@golferboy 

I know, its been awhile.  The issue I was having turned out to be a bad cartridge.  However, I wanted to comment on everything else you said which to summarize is "Pay UP$$" if your expecting the sound of Vinyl to match the clarity, detail, dynamics and quietness of digital.  This is especially true if you've spent a fair amount building your digital system.

I have been upgrading my two channel system and theater to 4K vid.  I have yet to take the analog plunge but when I do i'll be allocating 6K to start.  I'll get some pretty stuff too, cause half the satisfaction is watching it work.  

I've since heard some good analog systems.  It's not that I think all things sound better but I will say I feel less listening fatigue with a good analog system.  
Well I am sticking with digital and going "all in."  After hearing PS Audio Direct Stream DAC at Axpona, reading reviews and doing further research, I am buying one.  I've read some audio geeks are giving up there analog rigs after getting one these. 

I really want an analog setup but the reality is I only have about 200 albums from 40 years ago.  I'd end up spending a fortune in records.

BTW Gold Note makes a killer Phono Preamp for the money.    
I guess my thinking is most of what I have is CD and even more in FLAC.  I enjoy Roon which does a great job merging my FLAC collection with Tidal. Probably 90% of all listening time is either spent looking for new tracks or playing the playlists I spent so long creating.  Spending the digital first makes sense for me.   

I also figure if I spend on analog I am also going to want more records which of course means more money and more clutter.  My wife already thinks I'm crazy, after all she could be going on a cruise with this spend, right?  

If I had 4000 records, I would surely be "all in" on analog and long ago.  

I am not going to get into a debate about sound and what sounds better or why because its too subjective.  But, I'll argue all day about which formats are capable of delivering more dynamic range and frequency response.  It's clear by every scientific measure that digital is the winner here.  I think the loudness wars did a great disservice to digital in terms of what it could deliver to a highly resolving system.  Recording Engineers were/are too worried about making music sound good for cheap ear buds and cheap electronics.  Having to compress the dynamic range of original recording to appease mainstream (those who are uniformed) is a shame.