Never give a sucker an even break.

[NotAllThere]

I used to think it was all tosh. But having listened to a pristine copy of Dark Side of the Moon on vinyl on a stupidly expensive equipment, and then compared to the CD (on a similarly high quality bit of kit), I'm convinced the audiophiles are right. I just don't think it's worth the money - I only really listen to music in the car, so MP3 is absolutely fine!

[MicrosoftBob]

I used to think it was all tosh. But having listened to a pristine copy of Dark Side of the Moon on vinyl on a stupidly expensive equipment, and then compared to the CD (on a similarly high quality bit of kit), I'm convinced the audiophiles are right. I just don't think it's worth the money - I only really listen to music in the car, so MP3 is absolutely fine!

But what about comparing a high bit rate FLAC recording to vinyl, standard CDs are far exceeded by FLACs

[TykeMerc]

Hmmm £5k mains lead, they've missed a trick here, they could charge £100k to send in a super sparky to install a specialist consumer unit and run mains to sockets.

Maybe they could set up a HiFi specialists energy supplier and condition the power coming off the transmission lines.

[Magpie252]

But what about comparing a high bit rate FLAC recording to vinyl, standard CDs are far exceeded by FLACs

Vinyl is an analogue technology, the bit rate is infinite

FLAC is a ‘lossless audio codec’, CD can be ripped to FLAC, it’s just a bit perfect copy of the CD, the advantage is that audio CDs don’t have built-in error correction during playback so a bad CD transport can introduce errors to the data stream.

So to say that FLAC exceeds CD quality is wrong, unless you download a FLAC file at a higher resolution than a red book CD (16bit 44.1kHz)

As the owner of a top spec Linn Digital Streamer capable of 24bit 192kHz bit rate, I have to agree with NAT that a well configured & setup turntable far exceeds digital playback

All that being said, Russ Andrews is a well-known purveyor of snake oil within the Hi-Fi community, I wouldn’t go near him even with your money (& don’t get me started on cat6 cables)

[unixman]

I used to think it was all tosh. But having listened to a pristine copy of Dark Side of the Moon on vinyl on a stupidly expensive equipment, and then compared to the CD (on a similarly high quality bit of kit), I'm convinced the audiophiles are right. I just don't think it's worth the money - I only really listen to music in the car, so MP3 is absolutely fine!

It is possible to have a poorly engineered CD recording, just like any other medium. I have a couple of CDs which are awful. Same for vinyl. IIRC Dark Side of the Moon was a very good vinyl recording, and Rumours by Fleetwood Mac was one of the best (for sound quality I mean).

I have been listening to music on the same Leak hi-fi since 1974, and it is lovely. In the early 90s I retired the turntable - Golding-Lenco GL78, and replaced it with CD. However the amp and speakers remain the same. Well, the audiophiles were not right. A CD player is far, far, far ahead of even the worlds best turntables. I don't mean a bit better, I mean totally, wholly in a different universe. CD music can be a shock if your ear is used to vinyl because of the accuracy and almost total lack of noise. Familiar recordings can sound harsh and clinical. But that was the sound of the original artist.

Audiphiles should really be called Hi-Fi subjectivists, a movement that started to take over domestic hi-fi in about 1976 and dominated until just a few years ago, but persists in pockets, like the purveyors of these cables.

[VectraMan]

Vinyl is an analogue technology, the bit rate is infinite

Clearly not as it's made out of molecules, even if the needle and the electronics were sensitive enough to work down to that level, which they're not. And analogue by definition means inprecise; every single record pressed will be slightly different, and the signal will deteriorate every time it's played, which a digital recording will never do.

FLAC is a ‘lossless audio codec’, CD can be ripped to FLAC, it’s just a bit perfect copy of the CD, the advantage is that audio CDs don’t have built-in error correction during playback so a bad CD transport can introduce errors to the data stream.

So to say that FLAC exceeds CD quality is wrong, unless you download a FLAC file at a higher resolution than a red book CD (16bit 44.1kHz)

Yes, but he did say "high bit rate FLAC" - i.e. better than CD. And Audio CD does have built in error correction, which is why you can drill holes in them and they still work (as shown on Tomorrow's World).

How about an £8K HDMI cable:

Wireworld Platinum Starlight 7, HDMI to HDMI Cable - 20m - FutureShop.co.uk

You get much better 1s and 0s out of that than a £1.50 cable.

[NotAllThere]

The problem comes in trying to keep the vinyl pristine...

He's got a device like a dishwasher for vinyl.

You get a better bandwidth with more expensive cables. Some devices simply won't work with a £1.50 cable. Certainly high quality speaker cable makes a huge difference to sound quality over the cheap crap sold with modern mini-hifis. There reaches a point though where extra costs only yields tiny quality improvements.

[MicrosoftBob]

[QUOTE=Magpie252;2083103]Vinyl is an analogue technology, the bit rate is infinite

So to say that FLAC exceeds CD quality is wrong, unless you download a FLAC file at a higher resolution than a red book CD (16bit 44.1kHz)

Which is the whole point of having FLAC, otherwise you might as well just play a CD or a 256k MP3

[unixman]

FLAC is just a lossless compression algorithm, not an indication of audio quality. I use it to store my main music archive.

One annoyance is the lack of outlets selling the the FLAC format. Thay all want to give us MP3, albeit high bit rate.

[DaveB]

Five and a half grand for a mains lead.

The SuperKord Range : Russ Andrews,Hi-fi Accessories,Home Theatre Accessories,cables,mains,speakers,interconnects,sp eaker cables,mains accessories, turntable accessories, cd accessories...

Stone me.

Never mind that, click the drop down and select the other plug type.....