New rule

[gfish]

No one is allowed to have an opinion on vinyl vs. digital unless they have at least a basic understanding of the Shannon sampling theorem. Seriously, if you don't know what the Nyquist rate is, shut the hell up.

Note: There are still valid arguments to be had in this domain. They just don't include the phrase 'warmth of analog' at any point.

Comments

[neuro42.livejournal.com]

Well.

A) "warmth of analog" usually refers to harmonic distortion in analog power amplifiers, not so much the source material. And there is a legitimate argument that distorted sound is "warmer" than less-distorted sound.

B) The Shannon theorem only proves that it is *possible* to reconstruct a signal up to the Nyquist limit. It doesn't give a method for doing so, and in fact, many of the methods used have significant shortcomings. As I Understand It, I Am Not A Signal Processing Expert.

[ashley-y.livejournal.com]

I wonder how hard it would be to digitally recreate "warmth" distortion, for the benefit of vinylists?

[tfabris.livejournal.com]

It's done all the time. There are a million products which do this.

[solarbird]

On A) - Yeah, secondary harmonics in tube amps in particular, iirc. It's been recreated but I don't know that anybody really bothers.

I don't know many people who talk about "warmth of analogue" without really meaning "warmth of tube amplifiers," but that's just my experience.

[tfabris.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I find it odd that some people want the additional coloration between the artist's original mix and their ears. I'd rather hear something closer to what the artist heard when it was being mixed.

[caladri.livejournal.com]

I don't think it's that odd alongside to the debate between whether electronic music should be quantized to sub-millisecond perfection or more "organic". Without a little noise in the system, ideally at every stage, people respond better. I mean, hell, the "sound" associated with many analogue synthesizers is in part down to the quirks of the individual parts. A little entropy seems to be important.