Gonna get interesting when I digitize my vinyl at 24/192!
Awwwww, Man!
Imagine the creaminess of surface noise and the sharp transients of pops and clicks at THAT sampling rate!
You jest but...
I would
love to let all of you Axiomites hear my vinyl playback system. You would be impressed with the sonic lushness and depth that can be achieved with the
proper equipment playing a well maintained record.
Most of my vinyl collection is in very good condition. I always clean each record before it is played and spend more on stylus/cartridges in a year than most have in a lifetime.
I have some 180 gram vinyl of Blue Note jazz recordings that sh#t all over the cd reissues as far as sonic quality goes.
Just because cds have technically better specs than the limited frequency range and limitations/anomalies/distortions that records have does not mean that they sound "better".
I've found that people who dismiss vinyl playback as inferior either do not own a quality turntable/phono stage or have never heard (or have forgotten) how great records
can actually sound on great equipment!
(note: Yes, I'm aware of Alan Loftt's recent
blasphemous article concerning vinyl vs. cds, and I will be addressing that subject soon... That's a whole thread topic of it's own right there!)
Hate to say it, but vinyl has no where near that resolution. Especially if it's been played more than once. Better use FLAC to try to recover some of the space of those top four octaves of inaudible hiss.
Why wouldn't I use the largest bit depth to capture (and believe me, it will be done as professionally as you can do it) the records?
16 bits would be too much of a compromise, although you are probably right about the frequency sampling rate. That's why I wouldn't bother with a sampling rate of 192k!
But make no mistake, analog's (even vinyl!) resolution is infinite compared to digital. Yes there is noise and distortions but, a lot of analog's distortions are desirable ones.
That's why most of us audio engineers are still trying to replicate the lushness and distortions/limitations that analog brings to the table. Witness all the software that emulates the harmonic distortions/sounds of tape saturation and tubes. If digital was already perfect for music/audio we would have stopped at 16 bits because, technically, it has better specs than analog. But as you are probably aware, there is almost no one recording today (digitally) that accepts
just the sounds of ones and zeros. We use many tricks and software/equipment to replicate analog recording.
And guess what? The majority of audio professionals agree that digital is still not quite there yet. It's getting close though, but it has a way to go to capture all that yummy, tape based goodness that we all know and love...
But then again, I'm also one of those people that believes that all amplifiers are not equal!
When I start archiving my lps I will post some clips of records vs. their cd versions so we can all hear what I'm talking about.
The difference is quite revelatory!
And btw, I'm only going to "digitize" my record collection for the convenience and ability to play them in a music server system.
That and to save those precious grooves from the effects of time and wear...
