Do you know why vinyl sounds like it sounds?

[beck]

This is the question you can get the answer to if you tap in at 15 min 30 sec! :-)

Interesting but is it true?

Comparing Nagra cd player with SME turntable playback.

https://youtu.be/zaeugL-1QJo

I notice that bass from cd sounds unnatural compared to vinyl in this setup (like I have noticed at home with my own system).

[Spannko]

I like his ideas about turntables adding a euphonic distortion.

I see turntables as being half mechanical, half electrical and half a musical instrument which when designed correctly add a harmonious distortion to the music which is pleasant to listen to.

Also, turntables cannot exist in isolation and will become one (mechanically) with the support the turntable rests upon, so it’s important that the support is also designed so the turntable/support system resonates in a harmonious manner.

I do wonder if this is one of the main reasons why some turntables are more enjoyable to listen to than most digital players? It’s easier to design harmonious resonances into a turntable than a digital player, and not only that, practically every digital player is designed to eliminate all distortions rather than ensuring any resonances which exist (electrical and mechanical)are engineered to sound harmonious. It’s the distortions which give the player its timbre. Personally I’d prefer to listen harmonious distortions on vinyl or cd than a clumsily designed player with low levels of inharmonious distortion, which unfortunately applies to at least 90% of the equipment on the market.

[ThomasOK]

I like his ideas about turntables adding a euphonic distortion.

I see turntables as being half mechanical, half electrical and half a musical instrument which when designed correctly add a harmonious distortion to the music which is pleasant to listen to.

You may have hit on it right there. If a turntable has three halves it automatically is 50% more musical than a CD player or streamer that only has two! ;-)

I do agree that the quality of sound if far more important than the perfromance specs. It seems to me that the current crop of digital designers have often forgotten the lessons of the 70s when the race to have the lowest distortion specs lead to some quite nasty sounding Hi-Fi while tube units with higher measured distortion were often easily more musical. History not learned from has a tendency to repeat itself.

[Defender]

;) and if the last halve of the 4 halves is than the addition of SINGularity than 4 halves make us sing

I agree its not about reducing the distortions to zero but rather keep the harmonic ones. That might have been also the trick (out of many others) on a Stradivari.
There is a C37 laque developed by Dieter Ennemoser which certain audio companies use for tweeter coatings and others even as treatment on electronic components to move resonances to harmonic ones

[lindsayt]

I don't rate the SME turntables that I've heard. They are good at the hi-fi aspects of detail retrieval, but hopeless from a tune dem point of view with them being so polite that they produce no humming along effect in the way that, for example, a medium spec LP12 can.

For vinyl vs CD, the 2 formats from my experience appear to be close enough that the better mastered version will sound better. With the limited number of original albums I have on both formats, vinyl has sounded better in my system with the CD versions sounding like vinyl where someone has been shrunk down to microscopic size and jumped into the groove and scrubbed away at it with a scouring pad. It can be difference between it sounding like you're listening to ogre sized musicians playing giant sized instruments with clumsy thumbs (CD) and human sized musicians playing with their fingers.

A cheap plasticky turntable playing a greatest hits album will sound a lot worse than a properly engineered turntable playing the original album or a 12" single. To the point where CD would be preferable.

There are a lot of modern commercially available CD's with excessively poor mastering. For any piece of music I'd rather listen to the better mastered version. With the vinyl or digital source just being a tool to replay the recording. If the mastering is about equally good on vinyl or CD, I'd go for the cheaper version.

I see it as very much a source first thing where the source is the recording.