Maximum Dynamic Range Of Vinyl

It turns out the dynamic range meter that folks are using to measure different releases doesn t work accurately on vinyl records or at least according to mastering engineer ian shepherd.

Maximum dynamic range of vinyl.

There s very little compression so the loudest parts of those sounds often. That s why snare drums cymbal splashes and other loud instruments have so much more punch in vinyl recordings. Yes vinyl was noisier. The dynamic range of a direct cut vinyl record may surpass 70 db.

But right now i m talking about signal to noise ratio and dynamic range. Another significant impact of finite quantizing resolution is finite dynamic range. Now i know that there are vinyl philes who still swear that lps sound better than cds. Relative dynamics is the difference in db between any two points in a waveform.

Consumer analog cassette tapes have a dynamic range of 60 to 70 db. Lp s difference between maximum to average is around 11 56db compared against the cd recording at 11 11db and even the digital rip at 11 35db. Vinyl s dynamic range is dependant on frequency because vinyl doesn t have a flat maximum output curve. The maximum peak level of analog recordings such as these is limited by varying specifications of.

The loudness war or loudness race refers to the trend of increasing audio levels in recorded music which reduces audio fidelity and according to many critics listener enjoyment increasing loudness was first reported as early as the 1940s with respect to mastering practices for 7 singles. Pcm of any flavor has a flat response to fs. Dynamic range is the difference between the loudest signal and the noise floor. For the first time consumers could purchase a recording in a medium whose dynamic range exceeded that of 20 000 professional tape machines.

When i cut a master for vinyl and a cd master from the same digital master tape they sounded pretty much the same except for the noise floor. As implemented the bit depth of cd and dvd digital audio formats accommodates a higher dynamic range than vinyl is capable of. The dynamic range of digital audio systems can exceed that of analog audio systems. Fdr vinyl our full dynamic range releases were made in response to the so called loudness wars with the dynamic range of music being restricted more and more in an effort to make it sound louder.

The tt dynamic range meter doesn t work on vinyl. Here lp actually wins over cd. Analog fm broadcasts rarely have a dynamic range exceeding 50 db. Vinyl can still push music to the limits of its dynamic range 55 70db but it often shies away from doing so in order to maintain sound quality.