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Linn Ekstatik & new Radikal

Some albums really work on vinyl, ‘Aja’, ‘Breakfast in America’, but a lot of modern music is better on digital, IME. To be honest it’s not a hill I would die on, as long as I can listen to new music at decent fidelity that’s fine.
 
Woodface said:
Some albums really work on vinyl, ‘Aja’, ‘Breakfast in America’, but a lot of modern music is better on digital, IME. To be honest it’s not a hill I would die on, as long as I can listen to new music at decent fidelity that’s fine.
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Vinyl records produced from the original analogue master-tapes or at least re-mastered from them, will normally sound ultimately better than those produced from digital sources.
Played back on a good TT, analogue sources will normally always outperform digital.

However a good CD player can still make CD’s sound very musical, engaging and enjoyable.
As indeed can Hi-Res streaming systems.

Go with what source you prefer on a given day or given time of day.

I personally think that a well recorded from analogue 45 single vinyl record can sound amazing. Pretty inconvenient to play too many of them in a row unless you fancy a work out a5 the same time though.

Let’s all enjoy the music...
 
Alun Rains said:
Vinyl records produced from the original analogue master-tapes or at least re-mastered from them, will normally sound ultimately better than those produced from digital sources.
Played back on a good TT, analogue sources will normally always outperform digital.

However a good CD player can still make CD’s sound very musical, engaging and enjoyable.
As indeed can Hi-Res streaming systems.

Go with what source you prefer on a given day or given time of day.

I personally think that a well recorded from analogue 45 single vinyl record can sound amazing. Pretty inconvenient to play too many of them in a row unless you fancy a work out a5 the same time though.

Let’s all enjoy the music...
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Agreed, KoB on vinyl seems to outperform the CD version I have but there are so many variables. Conversely the Louis & Ella duet albums sound great on CD. Great music transcends format every time.
 
dave charlton said:
[edit]


Digital might sound impressive but it's not a natural sound imho. And one doesn't need to spend silly money on a turntable to show up it's limitations.
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I think that used to be the case, but don’t think it is now. I was not a fan of cd at all, but digital has cone on a long way in my opinion.
 
Alun Rains said:
Vinyl records produced from the original analogue master-tapes or at least re-mastered from them, will normally sound ultimately better than those produced from digital sources.
Played back on a good TT, analogue sources will normally always outperform digital.

However a good CD player can still make CD’s sound very musical, engaging and enjoyable.
As indeed can Hi-Res streaming systems.

Go with what source you prefer on a given day or given time of day.

I personally think that a well recorded from analogue 45 single vinyl record can sound amazing. Pretty inconvenient to play too many of them in a row unless you fancy a work out a5 the same time though.

Let’s all enjoy the music...
Click to expand...
Digital today is fully competetive with best analogue - and then some.

This is from someone who still listens to 8-track...
 
Vinyl is capable of a higher quality than most people have heard from it. Those who say digital competes or is better probably have never heard vinyl at its best, whereas digital is nearly always very near its best. I'm glad that companies like Linn are continuing to develop new equipment for vinyl. The standard of vinyl playback is still rising fast.
 
sonddek said:
Vinyl is capable of a higher quality than most people have heard from it. Those who say digital competes or is better probably have never heard vinyl at its best, whereas digital is nearly always very near its best. I'm glad that companies like Linn are continuing to develop new equipment for vinyl. The standard of vinyl playback is still rising fast.
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Exactly...
 
DimitryZ said:
Digital today is fully competitive with best analogue - and then some.
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Na, I don't know that I agree either. Don't get me wrong, good digital is very good, no argument about that, but a good turntable can do things it's tricky for digital to replicate. More importantly, vinyl has an inherently musical sound. You can buy a relatively cheap turntable which is very musically involving and satisfying but getting digital to sound really nice usually takes effort.
 
Mr Pig said:
Na, I don't know that I agree either. Don't get me wrong, good digital is very good, no argument about that, but a good turntable can do things it's tricky for digital to replicate. More importantly, vinyl has an inherently musical sound. You can buy a relatively cheap turntable which is very musically involving and satisfying but getting digital to sound really nice usually takes effort.
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Quite the opposite today. $100 DAC out of an iPad is stunning...$100 TT, not so much.
 
The idea that a turntable is inherently more musical is, frankly, bizarre. Musicality is inherent to the recording, nothing else. I’ve just spent 3 hours listening to a mix of CD rips & RP, yesterday I spun some records I cannot honestly say I enjoyed one over the other.

I totally get we like different things but I probably enjoy music more & listen to a greater variety of genres since I switched to digital as a primary source. Maybe when I do the Karousel upgrade I will feel differently? Who knows but I doubt it.
 
DimitryZ said:
Quite the opposite today. $100 DAC out of an iPad is stunning...
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Sort of. I agree that cheap digital can do amazing things but it's not the same as a turntable. Hi-Fi and music are not necessarily the same thing. Being impressed and being satisfied are not necessarily the same thing.
 
It seems to me that by trying to run both a high quality digital source and turntable only half the available cash is spent on either. Now that almost everything is available on vinyl again it's genuinely possible to pick one or the other and build a far better system than by splitting the resources, whether you go for digital or vinyl.

When I took the decision to stick with vinyl in the early 1990's I didn't expect turntables to improve, or even be available new by 2021. I really appreciate the development that Linn and others are doing even if I can't afford all of it just yet.
 
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