As much as vinyl records are analog, I still believe that the sound quality is much better than mp3. I have heard it said that the easiest way to do this is by the use of a USB turntable but even when doing so, does the quality of the record end up being compromised?
Rusty Messages: 1191 Registered: May 2018 Location: Kansas City Missouri
Illuminati (3rd Degree)
I'd offhand say the quality of the end product being compromised more from the use of a typical cheap usb record player than the digitization of the analog source. I've used the free audacity down load and a usb phono preamp to accomplish nice sounding wav files with my analog turntable. You don't have to make the files mp3. But with a cheap turntable you get high w&f, rumble and speed inconsistency.
gofar99 Messages: 1949 Registered: May 2010 Location: Southern Arizona
Illuminati (5th Degree)
Hi, If the analog source is high quality then the MP3 will be much worse. OK for listening as background or in the car. Using a typical phono preamp (some good ones are in the $100-200 range) you can digitalize the output in a PC or via a dedicated device and (I use a SIIG external sound "card")save the file in a much higher resolution. I like 24/96 (native format no software in the SIIG) as the files are not too huge and nearly any program can handle them. Hard to tell them from the original material. If you use Audacity you can edit them and clean up much in the way of defiencies. Steep sub audio cut to remove sub sonics and if you have the patience you can individually remove clicks and pops. The auto setting is OK, but not perfect. Lots of other things can be done too. After the edit, you can decide what format to export the files. I use .wav as all my devices can use it and it sounds great. There are plenty of choices to suit your needs.
The quality of sound will be compromised whenever it is transferred from one format to another. Ears more trained than mine can tell the difference, which is why my vinyl music stays right there on the vinyl.
The experiences you can have playing records compensates for the diminishing quality of sound over multiple playings. It may not sound as clear and crisp as a digital format, but the memories you have when you plop the needle on the record makes the music sound just as good as when you bought it.
gofar99 Messages: 1949 Registered: May 2010 Location: Southern Arizona
Illuminati (5th Degree)
Hi There is considerable variation in opinion about the quality of vinyl playback. In the 60'S it was thought that a LP exhibited noticeable wear after as few as 7 plays. But back then cartridges often tracked at 7-10 grams or more and except for rather costly studio gear had clunky arms and generally rather mediocre tracking ability. Now there are a number of serious audiophiles that claim that you can have 1000's of plays with no degradation. I am not sure of that, but I have a number of well recorded LPs that are over 50 years old and play just fine with no distortion and insignificant noise in the background. My fridge in the kitchen that is around two corners and 40 feet away makes more noise. Much of this depends though on the quality of the LP itself and what you are playing it on. The quality of LPs was rather good in the 60's and 70's and went into the toilet in the 80's IMO. There has been significant improvement since about 2010.
All that said, I agree that transferring an analog source to digital is likely to cause issues of some sort. At high sampling rates and bit depths it is probably so minimal that only a few really great listeners would be able to tell. I personally find that anything equal to or over 24/192 uncompressed is beyond my ability to tell the difference. You do need to have a good ADC and DAC for that. MP3s in all their glory (and sampling rates) are clearly less musical. They did and to some extent still do have a place in the audio scheme of things where compact files are a major concern and the listening environment is not particularly demanding. Such as in a car or while jogging (I don't recommend that for safety reasons though). When I digitize something I still stick to 24/192 WAV format. Everything can play it and storage is cheap. Even my portable player (a FIIO Hi-Res, AKA MP3 player in some circles) can handle 256 gig of music. That BTW is a huge number of WAV files.
So, if must convert and need to save space use one of the lossless formats. Not MP3. Just my 2 cents.
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