RE: Ask an Audio geek
April 11, 2016 at 7:13 pm
(This post was last modified: April 11, 2016 at 7:14 pm by IATIA.)
I'm sorry folks, but DIGITAL IS NOT AN EXACT RECORDING of the original. It is slices pieced together and part of what is missing, is the information between the slices.
Speakers are analog. Guitars are analog. Violins are analog. Percussion is analog. Horns and trumpets are analog. Sax, clarinet, bassoon, they are all analog. No matter how digital one thinks they may have gone, it all started off analog.
The biggest problem with digital (besides the lack of similar harmonics) is that it tends to 'clean up' the analog signal and it is not an exact copy of the original performance. Digital is close, but it cannot compare with analog on so many levels. The only real advantage to digital is the ability to replicate the original copy precisely.
Now, can one really tell the difference? If you are a boomer (car bouncing and rattling to overblown bass) of course not (and their ears are probably shot anyway). Got a cheap stereo in your house? No difference.
If you truly love music and have a high dollar system and good hearing, the difference is noticeable. My hearing is not as good as it used to be and I can tell the difference between an original CD and all those same songs crammed into a nano.
And I do not think reel-to-reel has even been mentioned. The problem with reel-to-reel of course, is the availability of recordings.
1. Reel-to-reel
2. Vinyl
3. CD
4. anything digitally compressed
Speakers are analog. Guitars are analog. Violins are analog. Percussion is analog. Horns and trumpets are analog. Sax, clarinet, bassoon, they are all analog. No matter how digital one thinks they may have gone, it all started off analog.
The biggest problem with digital (besides the lack of similar harmonics) is that it tends to 'clean up' the analog signal and it is not an exact copy of the original performance. Digital is close, but it cannot compare with analog on so many levels. The only real advantage to digital is the ability to replicate the original copy precisely.
Now, can one really tell the difference? If you are a boomer (car bouncing and rattling to overblown bass) of course not (and their ears are probably shot anyway). Got a cheap stereo in your house? No difference.
If you truly love music and have a high dollar system and good hearing, the difference is noticeable. My hearing is not as good as it used to be and I can tell the difference between an original CD and all those same songs crammed into a nano.
And I do not think reel-to-reel has even been mentioned. The problem with reel-to-reel of course, is the availability of recordings.
1. Reel-to-reel
2. Vinyl
3. CD
4. anything digitally compressed
You make people miserable and there's nothing they can do about it, just like god.
-- Homer Simpson
God has no place within these walls, just as facts have no place within organized religion.
-- Superintendent Chalmers
Science is like a blabbermouth who ruins a movie by telling you how it ends. There are some things we don't want to know. Important things.
-- Ned Flanders
Once something's been approved by the government, it's no longer immoral.
-- The Rev Lovejoy
-- Homer Simpson
God has no place within these walls, just as facts have no place within organized religion.
-- Superintendent Chalmers
Science is like a blabbermouth who ruins a movie by telling you how it ends. There are some things we don't want to know. Important things.
-- Ned Flanders
Once something's been approved by the government, it's no longer immoral.
-- The Rev Lovejoy
