Gain discrepancies between old analogue recordings and new digital recordings

[twinkle toes]

Hi I have a question, it may of been answered but im not trailing through nearly 23k posts to find it

 

Now i posted this question in another thread and they said it may be best answered here, though i thought it was the perfect thread as they where talking about "test" tracks and mastering quality.

 

Anyhow the question is below

 

I have an understanding but not the greatest in the world but enough to get me by, but the less jargon the better.

 

 "What i find and i don't know anybody else finds this to be the case, is music that was mastered for LP (analogue) sounds well crap in digital well not that it sounds bad, Its too dam quite, requiring to high of a volume increase/adjustment. Taking the volume control into a noisier segment of its rotation, 12 o'clock and beyond to get similar levels to digital". My guess is!" The music was from a time were it was designed to go through a phono stage with gain adjustments and i feel digital rips/transfers/remasters fail (most of the time) to take that into account. I'd rather actually listen to those tracks on a black disc being played how they where mastered/inteneded to be played but feel that shouldn't be the case. Be interested to know if anybody finds that to be the case or am i completely wrong!? and as to be the may be the case as stated i think it boils down to the phono, it cant be be just lack of dynamics between digital and analogue"

 

I went on to use the migrant song used in Thor Ragnarok as an example. It's obversely been played with and mastered in the film to where i feel the CD/digital download should actually be. Am i wrong?

In a way (i feel) kind of a similar situation, but in reverse to guitar hero's rendition of death magnetic (Metallica) and the quite re-release of the album bring it in line with computer games rendition.

 

Just would like to know if people could shine some light on the subject somewhat. No worries if not i just though it would develop and interesting decision we could all learn from!

 

 

[kevinmi]

I'm not real sure if I understand the question correctly, but in my system I can play vinyl and cd's and they have the same volume. 

[JohnA]

The gain setting on your preamp is not particularly relevant.  And 12 to 1 o'clock is usually a low noise zone for most preamp.  The loudness difference could be as simple as your phono cartridge has low output and your disc player was designed with relatively high output voltage. 

[Bacek]

Actualy all pot zones on amp should be unnoticeable noise free. On La Scala in my setup I hear any noise from "digital" rig only when I open pot completely and I'm close to the speaker, vinyl is other cup but this is it's nature.  For most amps pot is not increasing strength/level of the input signal. It actually attenuates it. So what is the point of making analog signal level high on phono preamp and then attenuate it on pre/power amplifier. This is a way where noise and distortion is introduced. So I don't have any doubts on turning pot more for analog listening. On the other side if by turning pot up you hear more noises then they are just present on amp input. They could be phono preamp introduced, but mostly it's record itself. For some extend it could be cartridge but we cannot avoid vinyl noises. Newer vinyl records sometimes are "louder" then oldies but usually some other aspects of natural sound are lost on this kind of mastering.