Comments by "Perhaps" (@NoEgg4u) on "Technology Connections"
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@12:00
Using sub quality equipment (turntable, tone-arm, and cartridge) as well as not initially dialing in the cartridge (overhang, anti-skating, vertical tracking alignment, counter-balance, azimuth), makes for a pointless test.
Add to that, a likely piss-poor, low quality analog to digital converter, low quality phono stage, and listening via PC speakers, adds to the already pointless listening test.
Try stacking records, on a professionally set-up VPI, Clearaudio, Brinkmann (among many other reputable brands) turntable, with a quality tone-arm (Graham, Tri-Planar, Swedish Analog Technologies, etc) and a quality cartridge (many to choose from), feeding a quality phono-amp -> quality pre-amp -> quality monoblock amps -> quality speakers, and you will hear the difference when records are stacked.
Also note that most (90+%) vinyl sucks. So if the record's sound quality sucks, then hearing it suck even more (when stacked) is quite a challenge. But if this test was done with quality components, with a rare and great sounding vinyl pressing, you will hear the degradation introduced by stacking records.
Also note that you cannot use a record clamp, or an outer ring weight, to 1) reduce warp and 2) effectively add mass to the vinyl pressing.
Record changers are great, when sound quality is not a priority.
When sound quality is a priority, then you must give up convenience, and spend a good deal of time professionally dialing in everything.
Quality sound, from vinyl, is neither cheap nor easy.
The equipment in this video makes listening to vinyl both cheap and easy. Ergo, poor sound quality. Ergo, pointless test.
Cheers!
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@0:20
"Vinyl is better" is a meaningless statement, or, perhaps, misleading.
Most vinyl sucks (over 90%). But if you find the right stamper, you have about a 2% chance of finding 1 outstanding side of a pressing.
If you have quality audio gear (never seen on your channel), and professionally dial in your turntable, tone-arm, cartridge (99.99% of people do not do this), and a quality phono-amp, and a quality pre-amp, and quality amps, and quality speakers, professionally positioned, and your room is absent of excessive reflections, and you professionally clean your pressing, then you will have vinyl listening experience that must be heard to be believed -- and your sarcastic put-downs of vinyl will cease.
Yes, vinyl is both a pain and expensive to achieve the above. But if you have the determination and the $$, you will be a happy camper. And, yes, it will sound better than anything digital (which is also imperfect).
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@1:01
"We just haven't seemed to find a place for fiber optics, aside from piping it into your home or business".
Data centers use loads of fiber for connecting servers to external, local storage (such as, for example, EMC's VMAX).
@12:05
"Good luck avoiding the building's electrical wiring, they're eventually gonna share."
Products from companies such as Shunyata Research and Audioquest clean up the power.
If you do an A/B test, using no upgraded power related cables or equipment, and compare it to replacing the power cords and using their line conditioners, you will hear a difference -- and it is not subtle.
Do not perform this test with any of the equipment you have in this video. It is not capable of throwing a wide, tall, deep, and realistic soundstage. It does not reveal the space between the instruments. It does not reveal black backgrounds. It never sounds like the singers are really in the room with you. Rather, it always sounds like a reproduction.
But with high-end, matched, and professionally set-up audio equipment, you will hear all of the above, and you will benefit from cleaner power, derived from products from Shunyata and Audioquest.
How does that happen?
I do not build the stuff. I just listen to it. There is a difference, and it is not wishful thinking.
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@16:11 "...records are objectively pretty bad at isolating the two channels."
Records are not perfect at isolating the two channels. That is a far cry from being bad at isolating the two channels.
Apparently, our host has never used anything other than mass produced,, low end, department store turntables, tone-arms, and cartridges.
He has likely never professionally dialed in his tone-arm and cartridge alignment vectors.
On a professionally set-up, high-end stereo, the isolation between the two channels is outstanding (not "pretty bad").
Our host is well informed (for the most part). But he made the above statement, based on his personal experience with playing records, and based on his lack of experience playing records on a professionally set-up, high-end turntable.
He was using a Sony turntable. That is a decent turntable. However, it is like using a Toyota Corolla to judge how a Ferrari LaFerrari would perform (and never even having heard of the Ferrari brand, or any other super-car brand -- never knowing about anything that performs better than a Corolla).
He needs to use an AMG, or Clearaudio, VPI, or one of the other high-end, highly regarded turntable brands (and a model from their higher tier of their offerings).
The same goes for tone-arms and cartridges.
And he would need to dial in, with precision, the following settings:
-- the effective length of the tone-arm
-- the cartridge's weight
-- the vertical tracking alignment / rake angle
-- the anti-skating
-- the overhang
-- the offset
-- the zenith angle
-- the cartridge's azimuth
If any of the above are not set correctly, it will result in a less than stellar listening experience, and I am pretty sure that our host has never dialed the above in, or has even heard about most of the above settings.
The above is how you get outstanding stereo separation, quiet surface noise, and great imaging -- assuming the pressing is good (most are not good (that's another can of worms) -- and is another reason our host knocked vinyl's stereo separation).
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Fiber optic cables provide galvanic isolation that RCA cables do not -- and it matters. Why?
The host of this video correctly states that either the digital data gets there or it does not. That is true. But as our courts say when you take the witness stand "Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?" In this case, we heard the truth, but not the whole truth.
Line nose that travels through RCA cables will accompany the digital signal into the DAC. That line noise will be picked up by the analog section of the DAC.
Yes, CD players have an analog section. CD players create sound from scratch. They create sound from reading the zeros and ones and making it into an analog sound that eventually makes it to your speakers.
So RCA cables (especially crappy ones) are a conduit for electrical noise that breach your CD player's (your DAC's) internal components. And line noise is bad for sound reproduction.
You might be thinking "I hear no line noise". Well, if you took steps to eliminate the line noise, you would notice an improvement in sound quality. The music would reveal inky black backgrounds.
There is low-fi stereo equipment.
There is mid-fi stereo equipment.
There is high-fi stereo equipment.
Each of the above has tiers.
All of the equipment that the host used in this video is "low-fi", and the lower end of low-fi.
That is why, to his ear, cables make no difference.
The equipment he is using is equivalent to the testing equipment used in a lab.
If the lab is using equipment that is not suited to the test at hand, you will not obtain meaningful test results.
Such is the case when this host compares poor cables using poor equipment.
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As it pertains to which format (digital or vinyl) is superior, it is six on one hand, and a half dozen on the other hand.
Which is a better car? A Rolls Royce or a Ferrari?
Both are great. Both can do things the other cannot.
Digital has timing issues, such as jitter and filter aliasing.
Jitter is the kryptonite of digital. When you manage to minimize it, the music blossoms. So most of the public has more of it than they realize -- because they have never heard digital that professionally controls it. In fact, digital timing issues are introduced into digital masters, due to specific hardware issues with the analog-to-digital-converter that made the digital master (something that the MQA process corrects, resulting in (digitally corrected )files that sound better than the flawed digital masters).
Analog has issues with the physical quality control and production of the medium.
No two records have the exact same sound quality, and side 1 and side 2 (of the same record) can, and often do, have significant difference in sound quality.
I have had the good fortune to hear both formats on very high end audio equipment, that was professionally matched, and professional installed, with room treatments, etc (the holy grail -- dream system).
On such an audio system, you will not only hear everything that is great about the recording, you will also hear everything that is wrong with the recording.
So when the studio (or record label) did anything less than an amazing job, it was noticeable -- but would usually not be audible on a department store stereo.
When the studio (or record label) did a great job, the realism was 3D to the point of being spooky (the band was in front of you, and you could see (with your ears) where each person was standing -- even though your eyes did not see them).
Digital wins for convenience, and for getting great sound at a fraction of the cost, as compared to a high-end turntable (and cartridge, and tone-arm, and phono-amp).
When you are prepared to mortgage your home, and have a dream analog system professionally set up, then analog, in my experience, sounds more realistic (but this is very, very, difficult to achieve).
One problem that vinyl records suffer from, is that the vast majority of them have, at best, mediocre sound. You might have to buy dozens of copies, of the same album, that were stamped at different geographical locations, before you find just one side of one album that is a gem.
The vast majority of the public will never hear a "gem" vinyl recording. And many that happen, by luck, to own one, are not likely to have the professional system to reap the benefits of the pressing. And, lastly, most folks do not care, which is why these rare pressings are routinely found on eBay (but you have to buy it, clean it, and play it, on a very good system, to confirm it).
Cheers!
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@0:21 "Remember kids, vinyl is better, because it's imperfect"
That statement implies that digital is not imperfect.
Vinyl has flaws.
Digital has flaws.
When both are at their best, vinyl wins.
It is neither easy nor inexpensive to accomplish. But vinyl, at its best, beats digital, at its best -- and nearly no one has ever heard either at their best.
Until our host actually listens to a high-end stereo, professionally set-up in a sound treated room, then he should not cast aspersions on what he never tested; never heard. This is a problem that many tech-savoy engineers have. If they actually did a listening test, using the right equipment, set-up by the right people, in the right room, then they would realize that their so-called know-it-all understanding is lacking. And if they are willing to acknowledge their mistake, then they could use their technical engineering experience to understand why they were mistaken.
Cheers!
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