The search for the ultimate sound quality

My last post regarding Marillion gave me an idea for a topic for discussion. Which album have you bought the most number of times in pursuit of superior sound quality? Being a self-confessed audiophile (and much to the annoyance of my wife), I am always in pursuit of the ultimate sound quality. For me, Peter Gabriel's first four albums have been nothing but a drain on my finances: I started with the original releases on vinyl, then upgraded(!) to the inferior CD analogue transfers, then bought the UK remastered CDs, then bought the Japan mini-LP sleeve editions, then finally bought the SACD versions. My bank manager is praying that no one invents a new high resolution format

I enjoyed the transfer of analog tapes to CD since it really was a major breakthrough over LPs in terms of quality (Not that LPs sounded poor but whatever the precautions used to manipulate them, they all developped scratch noise that is really frustrating when listening to quiet moments).

On the contrary, I reject all "remastering" since it completely transforms the original sound. I have a caricatural example, not prog, with the Doors. On the remasters, the balance between Morrison's voice and the band has been audibly modified in a way that you don't listen to the same band anymore.

So, LP to CD when LP is used but no further change. Especially no 36 different standards.

Ah well I didn't join the thread because I thought it was some techno-babble about your equipment set-up. But if its about vinyl vs CD even I can understand it......

I play exclusively CD's now, mostly in the car but I do sometimes use headphones at home. CD's have the advantage of still being playable after being used as drink mats or frisbees by the kids. However despite all the blag about how the sound quality of CD's would be that much better, for me there's something missing over the vinyl pressings of some of the 70's masters I used to own, as well as the tactile pleasure of the changing sides on the LP, and all that wonderful Roger Dean artwork......

Of course Tony ^ is absolutely right, the set up you have makes all the difference, I used to be reasonably knowledgeable on kit but with kids thats all out the window and a reasonble mini-system is all I have now.....

I have some LP albums which have been upgraded to CD, but some of them I just have copied directly from LP to CD myself and just love the old LP sound for those albums. I know it is just emotions and nostalgia and the music is of lesser quality, but hey I am a dreamer.

I do have your "problem" with the quality of MP3. I have a nice MP3 player in my car and in the beginning tranferred songs to MP3 in a low bitrate. Now these songs really annoy me. Like the complete Yes album is of such less quality. Of course I still have the Audio album, so I can easily tranfer them agina to MP3 using a better bitrate and I will, but I fear thsi will be an ongoing process and before I know it I will have the same level of problem as you.  Bad for my financial situation.

 

There's a quite large old thread on vinyl vs CD.

 

However, it's a great topic - and to me, it's obvious that a first press vinyl sounds best - but you have to pay big money for a "Near Mint" copy. Vinyl has a depth that CD will never have, and the problem with digital mastering is that the cleanup process that removes the "bad" noise tends to remove good noise (read "ambience") too - which is just a part of why vinyl is better. Reels are good too, but tend to lack top due to noise reduction trickery like Dolby.

CD-Audio at 16-bit/44.1 Khz is accurate, but too tightly banded in order to fit into the precise digital EQ range of 8,000 steps above and below 0. I've never been keen on it when compared with the fat sound of vinyl. MP3s are far worse - once you've heard a couple with "artifacts" in them, you start hearing them all over the place in digital recordings.

The best quality sound I have ever heard was the original 24-track reel of DSOTM that happened to appear at the studio I was working in one day - sounds pretty good on an M.C.I. going through a pair of ATC SCM 300s... 

After SA CD will be DVD-Audio - 24bits @ 192 Khz per channel, I believe. This format is extraordinarily accurate, giving 8,000,000 steps above and below 0 (correct me if I'm wrong - I'm not as techie as I'd like to be on this!), meaning far more dynamic shading and range.

It's still "steps" though, unlike the pure analogue "wave". Digital audio has to sample - it cannot get away from that fact. It's like watching a film - if the images flick by quickly enough, humans are fooled into thinking that they're watching a single, continuous image instead of loads of subtly different ones in succession.

But it's also like digital pictures; Look closely enough and you can see the pixels even at a high resolution - and there's something a bit unnaturally clear and precise about digital pictures.

With sound, there are all manner of natural harmonics in notes played on acoustic instruments - especially in chords, vibrations from the recording booth (no matter how sound proofed) and other resonances and performer noises - especially when multiple instruments record together. So something is always going to get missed if it's sampled. Digital is very accurate indeed. Analogue misses nothing - although it does add its own noises.

Just my opinions, of course

Seems to me that everyone is off topic on this thread,its not a vinyl v Cd topic at all....look

 

progmog wrote: Which album have you bought the most number of times in pursuit of superior sound quality?

Snow Dog wrote: Seems to me that everyone is off topic on this thread,its not a vinyl v Cd topic at all....look   progmog wrote: Which album have you bought the most number of times in pursuit of superior sound quality?

 

Edited by Snow Dog

I bet even money that hardly anyone, if not no-one, would be able to tell a CD from a mint vinyl in a blind test. all this stuff about vinyls sounding more "natural" is just an impression, gathered from the fact the person knows it is listening to a vinyl right now, so it "has" to sound more "natural". I personally don't give a damn about it.

the most perfect sound-system is in your HEAD

Edited by BaldJean

I like the cheesy old vinyl sound (with some pops and cracks)!  Some "sophistacted" music pieces with very quiet parts are nicer from a CD, but I have a bad hearing so I'm not very sensitive to poor sound quality.

I have "downgraded" several prog albums I have bought as a CD during 90's to an old vinyl(preferrably 1st press from country of origin).

The topic of this thread has gone somewhat awry, but I guess my topic
heading may have been somewhat misleading. Anyway, just to go with the
flow, I invested in a high-end SACD player and have found that SACDs have
the 'warmth' of vinyl , but none of the hiss and crackle. I also recently
invested in a DVD-A audio player and 'Fragile' by Yes was the first DVD-A
that I bought. I can honestly say that it surpasses both LP and remastered
CD versions.