26 May 2005

Measurement comparisons between CD and vinyl editions of the track "Lavender" from the Go-Betweens "Oceans Apart" album.

CD used: Yep Roc YEP 2105; Vinyl: Yep Roc LP-YEP-2105
(The Yep Roc CD release is identical sonically to the EMI / Lo-Max CD 7 24347 43702 1,
except for some subtle and insignificant differences in the track lead-in timings.)

Track timings were taken from the first percussive transient at the beginning of the track
(not the absolute beginning, which includes the lead-in silence).

Click the images for a detailed explanation (and select the 'original' size when the image window opens).

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(I also have moved an older figure into this gallery comparing the energy vs. frequency distribution
of the vinyl and CD reissues of the first two tracks from "Spring Hill Fair.")
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(Technical: Vinyl playback system was a Thorens TD160 MkII turntable with modified TP 16 low mass tonearm;
Ortofon Kontrapunkt B low-output moving-coil cartridge with solid ruby cantilever;
custom designed solid-state differential in / differential out head amplifier;
LynxTWO soundcard. RIAA equalization was performed in the digital domain using custom-designed
DSP software. Sample rate was 192 kHz / 24 bit. Except for the digital components, this represents
a middle-of-the-road audiophile type LP playback setup.)

If you've read this far, here's an extra treat: a hidden, non-public gallery,
with go-betweens "eye candy" : https://pbase.com/rsub8/gobees_jackets
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More background on the rationale for the existence of this web page
(in case you reached this page from elsewhere than the go-betweens message board)
can be found at: http://go-betweens.org.uk/cgi-bin/chatroom/show.cgi?tpc=1&post=7861#POST7861
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Added comments 27 May 2005:

The differences between the vinyl and CD waveforms may not be as large as they seem:
There may be clipping, as well, in the vinyl recording, that was present in the digital master,
that is masked by the vinyl production / playback process. This does not affect the conclusion
regarding the frequency response, as shown by the spectrogram (and the text description
accompanying the spectrogram).

The evidence is mounting (#4 - Leq curves) that the master used for the vinyl recording
was the same as that for the CD, at least until the point where the digital master was
tailored specifically for CD (bandwidth limited to 22 kHz for CD sample rate) or vinyl production.
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