Reply #17: LPs distort music in a way that is pleasing to the ear. [View All]

[hunter]

Same with vacuum tube amplifiers.

The "RIAA curve" used on vinyl records is a kind of electronic compression that allows more music to be put on a record. Without any sort of compression a vinyl LP might hold only as much music as a 45 because the lower frequencies (bass) would take up more room on the record than is required for their satisfactory reproduction. The RIAA curve evolved after many years of very intense engineering and experimentation; before this other sorts of compression were used that did not work as well, or sound as sweet.

For many kinds of popular music a vinyl record can actually sound better than the original master tape, and many recording engineers were very, very good at taking advantage of this effect.

CD's made from master tapes that were made for vinyl do not reproduce what the original recording engineers intended, even when the re-recording engineers making the new CD master account for this. Digital equipment can come very close to modeling the behavior of old analog recording equipment, but it can never be perfect. To a certain extent every piece of analog recording eqipment was unique, and every recording engineer had a unique way of using it. It is very much comparable to a musician and her own musical instruments. Nobody else can perfectly reproduce that musicians sound. They can play the exact same music, but it still won't sound the same.