The Impact of Audio Media ... on Emotion !

The vinyl "SOUND" … !?

As an enlightened amateur of music and audio technologies, I had many opportunities to exchange with vinyl fans, about the "warmth, wider stereo space, ... and even humanity" that this purely analog medium had - in their eyes - compared to digital sound (CDs at the time, then audio files now).

Having a good practice and experience of the Analog audio world (electronics) and the Digital audio world (creation of algorithms and software), I became interested in the supposed benefits of "Vinyl Sound" considering that its flaws (cracks, background noise, rumble, ...) were not the first source of emotion for the vinyl"fans".

THE PROJECT

Rather oriented "comfort of use" (digital audio file) while being firmly opposed to the loss of sound quality (mp3 format, loudness war, ...), I carried out this personal investigation by mixing the scientific approach AND comparative listening (Studio monitoring, controlled conditions).

The vinyl’s edition having almost disappeared from the market for 20 years (1990 to 2010), it was also necessary to wait for the combination of progress on resins, engraving and pressing care to have comparative elements ... comparable.

For this, I acquired CD and Vinyl versions from the same master and carefully re-edited in a "heavy vinyl" version, for digitization with Hi-Res technology via an audiophile turntable: Sony PS-HX500.

EXPERIMENTATION

I first developed an objective measurement "metric" which - it turns out - is not in the classical tools of sound engineers (I am not talking here about a phase correlation measure). It turned out that the signal from the vinyl did not have the same "spatial dimension", nor the same "roundness" as its CD’s version, for similar frequency response curve and dynamic range.

On this basis, I developed proprietary algorithms - with adjustment variables - to emulate the audio output of a vinyl sound from a mastered source done for CD media.

After quantifying the results and submitting « blind tests" to several expert listeners, it seems to me I have achieved a very satisfactory processing, which immediately generates «  listening pleasure » ... while keeping the benefit of the digital support (mobility, streaming, DNLA, ...).

Some extracts to listen below.

excerpt 1 - CD source

excerpt 1 - Vinyl Sound emulated from CD • Carbon13

extract 2 - CD source

excerpt 2 - Vinyl Sound emulated from CD • Carbon13

excerpt 3 - source CD

excerpt 3 - Vinyl Sound emulated from CD • Carbon13