| From: | Lee M Hemenway |
| Date: | 8 Aug 2000 at 01:21:37 |
| Subject: | Re: Cd`s & Record Decks (OT) |
Hello Don
>
> CD players vary a good deal in sound quality, for several reasons, and
> so of course do record players.
>
Indeed, we all see and hear in a slightly different way to the next
person, what sounds good to one person may not sound good to someone
else. It comes down to personal preference.
Although I do feel that if you were to conduct a blind listening test
utilising a good record player and a good CD player on the front end
of a good system, 80% of listeners would prefer the sound of the
record player. As for background noise such as rumble or click and
pop, these become virtually non-existent on a top notch record player.
The vinyl market is not dissimilar to the Amiga market in many ways,
it has become miniscule, but the people who are there are the ones
that *know*.
I have heard some very expensive record players on equally expensive
systems and the sound that was produced simply blows CD away.
CD sounds awfully harsh and grainy afterwards, especially noticeable
on strings.
> ...there can be resonances and distortion in the disc cutter,
> as there are in even the best cartridge and pickup arm.
>
> Likewise, there can be distortions in D to A and A to D converters,
> especially jitter. If a CD is dirty or a poor pressing, or the lens
> is dirty, the errors can exceed what the Reed-Solomon error
> correction can handle, and the player then interpolates missing
> values, giving major distortion. There is no LED on the player to tell you when
> this is happening.
Yes, just think of all the data that must surely be lost when the
analogue signal is first converted to digital and then converted back
to analogue when you play the CD. There is massive number crunching
and error correction going on in there.
The very fact that there is error correction going on when playing a
CD says it all.
I am really not anti CD at all, having spent a considerable amount of
money on a CD player and modified it with an upgraded clock to try to
further reduce jitter. This improved its performance very noticeably,
But it still does not come close to even a moderately priced record
player, such as a Pink Triangle or Michell Orbe.
>
> There are many variables.
There are indeed :-)
See you
Lee
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