[Audio Empire]

On Fri, 27 Apr 2012 09:51:33 -0700, ScottW wrote
(in article ):

On Apr 27, 7:45=A0am, Scott wrote:
On Apr 27, 6:03=A0am, rtweed wrote:





It seems to me that there's a very simple test to confirm or refute
the "does LP inherently sound better than digital" question:

- take your highest quality LP that you believe sounds superior, play
it on your best analog equipment possible and record it digitally
(preferably using your best ADC and highest resolution you want).

Now do a DBT listening to the original LP and the digital recording of
the LP.

My prediction is that nobody will be able to tell the difference and
the digital recording will exhibit all the same perceived qualities of
the analog original.

If this proves to be the case, any differences between the LP and
commercially-released CD (or whatever other digital format) must be
due to differences applied when each were created, or inherent changes
in sound as a result of cutting to and playing back from vinyl.

This is not a test of which sounds "better" but a test of transparency
of digital. I have done this test both with hi res and with CD rips of
vinyl. The CD rips were not perfectly transparent. I was able to
reliably hear differences.

If you didn't rip at high rates and then digitally filter and then
convert to 16/44 you used inferior capture methods.

CD (16/44) is perfectly capable of delivering transparent audio
content for playback, not recording.

Absolutely. CD is, for all intents and purposes transparent. If a 16/44.1 rip
of an LP doesn't sound IDENTICAL to the LP in a DBT, then the rip was made
incorrectly or the DBT was improperly conducted. They will be, for all
intents and purposes identical (as long as the comparison is made with the
same turntable rig and phono preamp that the vinyl was ripped with).

OTOH when I did the same test with 24/96
rips I was not able to discern any differences. If one wants to do a
test to determine which is "better" between CD and vinyl in so far as
which offers a superior aesthetic one need only to get a CD and LP of
the same titel that we know were mastered with no processing or the
same processing in the mastering and do blind A/B comparisons.

I don't know of anyone (except perhaps you) who claims that LP
playback cannot be easily blindly identified against CD when both are
of the same recording.
LP noise is audible.

I don't recall the previous poster asserting that. But, of course one can
tell an LP from a commercial CD of the same performance simply by a casual
listen. The surface noise and vinyl rush on the LP will give it away almost
instantly.