"Ethan Winer" ethanw at ethanwiner dot com wrote in message
...
Arny,

I agree with all of that, and here's an alternate thought on one item:

Audio McGurking might explain why so many perceive that vinyl sounds
better than good digital.

When people prefer the sound of vinyl (and analog tape too, especially if
you hit it hard) I think it may be some aspect of the distortion that's
appealing. I've taken mixes from my DAW and recorded them to a cassette
and
noticed an "improvement" of sorts. Obviously this is an effect, and not
higher fidelity. But for some reason the music can sound more coherent,
for
lack of a better word. This works best with sparse music. With dense busy
mixes the added distortion tends to muddy things up further, especially
the
IM components.

Or maybe people grew up listening to music full of scratches and pops, and
when those are missing the music somehow seems lacking?


No, it's 2nd harmonic distortion, which in small doses, leads to enhanced
presence in the midrange. Used along with phasing in the "vocal enhancers"
used in studios since the '70's.

You can get a similar effect on phonograph by lowering the VTA just below
its optimum point. The sound will "dull out" but the voices and instruments
will have more body.