I would like to ask for your thoughts and opinions on a topic that I am having trouble finding information on.
I listen to both digital(MP3s, FLAC, etc...) and vinyl. I am finding that I am appreciating more and more the sound of vinyl on my setup for many reasons that I wont go into here.
The issue is in selecting new vinyl releases and how to know (if possible) what I am getting and what the impact on sonic quality is. I understand that at some point the recording industry moved away from recording to analog and moved to digital. So, why would I want to buy a recently recorded album on vinyl? Wouldnt this mean that the audio info was converted from analog to digital in order to be pressed?
I am imagining an analog signal in 2d as being a line tracing the wave of the signal and that these waves are what are in the grooves of our LPs. I imagine the digital signal as being a set of stairs (small steps of course) that approximated the analog signal. Further, I imagine the conversion process of digital to analog as essentially applying bondo or wood filler to those steps and then sanding them down until we have an approximation of of the approximation of the original sound waves. To me, this seems suboptimal.
I am thinking of purchasing the reissue of Physical Graffiti on vinyl as I feel this would be the optimal way of experiencing that music. Recently, however, I purchased an "audiophile" pressing of an album I know and love: OK Computer by Radiohead and I felt if sounded awful - dull, lifeless, compressed. And it was super warped dammit.
How can I become a smarter consumer of new vinyl? How does one know what has happened to the signal leading up to it being pressed? My fear is that most consumers dont know or care and thus there is no focus on providing this information (or worse, we would be dissapointed to actually know the truth.)
I would like to ask for your thoughts and opinions on a topic that I am having trouble finding information on.
I listen to both digital(MP3s, FLAC, etc...) and vinyl. I am finding that I am appreciating more and more the sound of vinyl on my setup for many reasons that I wont go into here.
The issue is in selecting new vinyl releases and how to know (if possible) what I am getting and what the impact on sonic quality is. I understand that at some point the recording industry moved away from recording to analog and moved to digital. So, why would I want to buy a recently recorded album on vinyl? Wouldnt this mean that the audio info was converted from analog to digital in order to be pressed?
I am imagining an analog signal in 2d as being a line tracing the wave of the signal and that these waves are what are in the grooves of our LPs. I imagine the digital signal as being a set of stairs (small steps of course) that approximated the analog signal. Further, I imagine the conversion process of digital to analog as essentially applying bondo or wood filler to those steps and then sanding them down until we have an approximation of of the approximation of the original sound waves. To me, this seems suboptimal.
I am thinking of purchasing the reissue of Physical Graffiti on vinyl as I feel this would be the optimal way of experiencing that music. Recently, however, I purchased an "audiophile" pressing of an album I know and love: OK Computer by Radiohead and I felt if sounded awful - dull, lifeless, compressed. And it was super warped dammit.
How can I become a smarter consumer of new vinyl? How does one know what has happened to the signal leading up to it being pressed? My fear is that most consumers dont know or care and thus there is no focus on providing this information (or worse, we would be dissapointed to actually know the truth.)