Vinyl vs. Digital (CD)

[pauln]

if we're talking about a live recording, then live feed sound quality would sound like the band had plugged their instruments and microphones directly into my hi-fi system and were using my hi-fi system as their PA.

I'm really not sure what you mean - are you saying that you've heard a band plugged into your hi-fi? if not, how would you know what that sounded like? Are you saying that a recording of a live performance should sound the same as being there? It quite clearly can't.

Have you ever heard a CD played through 8 tonnes of PA? It sounds awesome and quite different to how it sounds in your home. The live sound is very much affected by the acoustics of the venue and how the FOH engineer mixes it.

Maybe I'm just misunderstanding you.

 

[Vladimir]

You can scientifically explain what makes a colour/scent/taste etc but can you scientifically explain why some like them and others don't?

regards

I noticed this cool question was left unanswered. :type:

I believe personal preferences are studied in the behavioral sciences as part of Associative Learning. Positive and negative stimulation of the senses (smell, taste etc) and/or the intelekt (what people say, marketing etc) ultimately build our preferences and reactions to various stimuli throughout our lives.

Quite simply said, if you had a real good time in your life with vinyl as a physical media, you will cling to it as a triger to revive those positive associations from your youth and make your music more enjoyable (more endorphins produced) than "flicking" tunes on the ipod. However, a young person today may get the same behavioral pattern but with flicking songs and he/she will cling to that in the future when music will be even more easily accessable and freed of any physical container. This Vinyl vs CD dilema sounds like cavemen gibberish to a 16 y/o that has everything on his smartphone.

The neurological studies of coke vs pepsi showed that despite the fact pepsi stimulated the pleasure side of the brain significantly more than coke, once people were shown what brand of drink they were consuming, the electrical activity of nerves was overwhelming on the intelelctual side of the brain where coke resided. Marketing and associative learning is very powerrfull and groupthink among this niche of consumers (audiophiles) keeps reinforcing the myth that vinyl is sonicaly superior thus actually making it sound (taste) superior to the believers.

The veil of mistery drops once you actually read the manual. Rationalists and mythbusters are party poopers, I'll give you that.

Carry on. :dance:

 

[Freddy58]

You can scientifically explain what makes a colour/scent/taste etc but can you scientifically explain why some like them and others don't?

regards

I noticed this cool question was left unanswered. :type:

I believe personal preferences are studied in the behavioral sciences as part of Associative Learning. Positive and negative stimulation of the senses (smell, taste etc) and/or the intelekt (what people say, marketing etc) ultimately build our preferences and reactions to various stimuli throughout our lives.

Quite simply said, if you had a real good time in your life with vinyl as a physical media, you will cling to it as a triger to revive those positive associations from your youth and make your music more enjoyable (more endorphins produced) than "flicking" tunes on the ipod. However, a young person today may get the same behavioral pattern but with flicking songs and he/she will cling to that in the future when music will be even more easily accessable and freed of any physical container. This Vinyl vs CD dilema sounds like cavemen gibberish to a 16 y/o that has everything on his smartphone.

The neurological studies of coke vs pepsi showed that despite the fact pepsi stimulated the pleasure side of the brain significantly more than coke, once people were shown what brand of drink they were consuming, the electrical activity of nerves was overwhelming on the intelelctual side of the brain where coke resided. Marketing and associative learning is very powerrfull and groupthink among this niche of consumers (audiophiles) keeps reinforcing the myth that vinyl is sonicaly superior thus actually making it sound (taste) superior to the believers.

The veil of mistery drops once you actually read the manual. Rationalists and mythbusters are party poopers, I'll give you that.

Carry on. :dance:

Eh?

 

[cheeseboy]

andyjm, if we're talking about a live recording, then live feed sound quality would sound like the band had plugged their instruments and microphones directly into my hi-fi system and were using my hi-fi system as their PA. I haven't come across any CD's of live recordings that sound that good. They all sound a few notches below that.

that's because the live recordings are usually usually re-mastered as the mix from the desk is the mix for that venue, not for listening on hifi at home. Honestly, if you've ever heard a dry mix, which is what it sounds like you are after, you would *hate* it.

Something that I've noticed is that some hifi peeps *think* what they want is what you are describing, however in reality if they ever got it they would say it sounded awful, lifeless, flat and for want of a better term crowded without any kind of seperation of instruments.