Vinyl Vs Cd Dynamic Range

Consumer analog cassette tapes have a dynamic range of 60 to 70 db.

Vinyl vs cd dynamic range.

Dynamic comparison of lps vs cds part 4. Vinyl has greater resolution than cd because its dynamic range is higher than for cd at the most audible frequencies. Here lp actually wins over cd. Analog studio master tapes can have a dynamic range of up to 77 db.

16 bit cd digital audio has a technical dynamic range of 96 db though many argue the perceived range is higher when taking dithering into account. How the end of side track is always left sounding like sludge. Pcm of any flavor has a flat response to fs. When i cut a master for vinyl and a cd master from the same digital master tape they sounded pretty much the same except for the noise floor.

The data is read by a laser and then decoded to produce audio playback. With the above in mind i began exploring why some vinyl records have greater dynamic range rightly concluding that mastering lay at the heart of the issue. Yes vinyl was noisier. Yes you have heard all the arguments before and you are probably sick and tired of it.

It even surpasses the source capitol used for the 2004 cd in their giftbox collection something which the vinyl centric bootlegging crowd has even picked up on. The dynamic range of vinyl when evaluated as the ratio of a peak sinusoidal amplitude to the peak noise density at that sine wave frequency is somewhere around 80 db. Vinyl is an analog storage medium which means there is a physical record of the music imprinted on the vinyl disc read by a sensitive needle called a stylus. Dynamic comparison of lps vs cds part 4 by chris tham september 02 2004.

Vinyl records typically yield 55 65 db. Digital got its act together but not until the death of the cd. Analog fm broadcasts rarely have a dynamic range exceeding 50 db. It wasn t long before vinyl recordings of the same content often had better sound quality at normal listening volumes simply because they had higher dynamic range.

Vinyl s dynamic range is dependant on frequency because vinyl doesn t have a flat maximum output curve. Dynamic range is the difference between the loudest signal and the noise floor. Lp s difference between maximum to average is around 11 56db compared against the cd recording at 11 11db and even the digital rip at 11 35db. Maybe it was coincidence but vinyl began its resurgence at around the same time as recordings started this trend.

The dynamic range of a direct cut vinyl record may surpass 70 db.