Phonograph A-to-D 16/88.2 ? or 24/44.1 ?

[Klewless]

I am aware of the endless discussion of this topic. Therefore ...

My question is "which is better considering the affordable hardware implementations (CD/DVD and computer sound cards)". I may or may not make CDs after I capture my albums. Stated differently, I am not interested in theory , only which gives better (if any) final results.

In short, which of the two choices here is more accurate

1. more samples or

2. finer resolution.

Again not in theory but in real world devices.

Thank you for your opinions.

John

[Mallette]

Correct answer (according my experiments) isn't on there. 24/88.2 is the lowest sample rate that consistently rates as near vinyl quality in listening tests of "qualifed" ears in my listening room.

As you say, this is debated endlessly...but both the science and actual listening tests suggests the truth of the above. In my case, I use DSD, which provides as perfect results as I can imagine as well as allowing for resampling to any PCM without audible artifacting.

Not sure why you would mention 24/44.1 if you are not interested in CD's, or why you'd choose 16/88.2 as opposed to 24.

Dave

[Klewless]

Hi Dave,

Thanks for responding. I was trying to decide if my two pairs are essentially equivalent in performance.

If I should do a CD, is the conversion from 24-to-16 accurate? That is why I was considering 16/88.2.

Right now I am using Magix Cleaning Lab and it does not seem to support 88.2

So I should probably consider another ( USB) converter. Actually I have an M-Audio Transit but cannot get it to run under Windows 7 (32 or 64) inspite of getting the latest updates. If someone can help me get it to operate I would prefer to use the M-Audio.

I have seen many 16/44.1 references to wit "that is all one needs". I could be very happy with 24/88.2 as you suggest but will need something to replace my Magix Cleaning Lab to capture my 350 albums.

Thanks again for helping me "see the light".

John

PS. How does one use DSD?

[Mallette]

There are a lot of free, cheap, or reasonable programs that easily handle 24/88.2. Audigy is one, from what I've heard from others here, Pure Vinyl is another. I use Sound Forge, which is hardly free but I consider as important as any other high quality component in my system. Going from 24/88.2 to 16/44.1 to burn a CD isn't going to sound any worse than having digitized directly to 16/44.1...at least that's my humble opinion and experience.

As to DSD, it's only available to my knowledge for us "little people" via the Korg components. I have an MR-1, playing card size recorder that is WAY more sonically impressive than it looks. DSD is about the same file size as 24/192 and equal to or superior (you decide which) in accuracy. However, it has the advantage in transparent transcoding to any PCM format due to 2.8mhz being essential an even divisor of any PCM rate. My personal experience is that transcoded to any PCM frequency it sounds as though it were mastered in that frequency. Here again, just my personal experience.

Thanks again for helping me "see the light".

Not so sure I can help with that...however, I think you should download some trials of the software I referenced and perhaps take a look at the Korg site. Digital is mature, and it constantly amazes me that so many here in our community don't just dive in and enjoy. Hard to go too wrong at prices ranging from free to a few hundred bucks, at least for a real music loving hobbiest.

I'll be interested to hear about your experiments.

Dave

[Klewless]

Hi Dave,

I got my M-Audio USB Transit to work!

Don't understand how but I got there. The fine print says it will not go higher than 48K on the analog input! However when I disabled output in it's control panel, it allowed me to choose 88.2 K for the input. Unfortunately Magix would not read beyond 48K, so I was not able to test. It did work for 48K though.

Were you talking about Sound Forge Audio Studio 10? If it is around $80 I will get it. Thanks for your input. Now I will download the free trial and see what happens.

The next big question concerns Media Players. Are they accurate in data handling? I would like to use FLAC for storage and playback. And if really want to have my cake and eat it too, I can just play my records as they are! But I do like the ability to sift through my collection in ways I cannot do now.

Thank you again.

John