Many innovations born during this time eventually made our
present day hi-fi a relatively affordable hobby but were the 1980s truly the
decade that the concept of sound quality was forgotten?
By: Ringo Bones
Back in the time – i.e. the late 1970s - when “experts”
believe that the residual noise in a system with a 70 dB signal-to-noise ratio
measurement is already inaudible to most humans, the birth pangs of the
“digital decade” cried out a promise of perfect sound forever where all it did
achieve was “consistent sound forever” digital master recordings were touted as
the best thing since sliced bread. Back in 1980 – a digital recording system
whose specifications are a “bit” less advanced than that of the one used in
recording CDs by 1983 – were used to make hiss-free master tapes for later
vinyl LP release, as in “digital vinyl LPs.
Strangely enough, the JVC DAS-90 digital recording system,
whose specifications are a bit lower than that of the Redbook spec 16-Bit 44.1
KHz sampled digital later used by consumer electronic giants Sony and Philips
to record and master their music for CD releases when 1983 came resulted in
vinyl LP releases of mostly Classical recordings that have way better sound
quality than CD. Back in 1995, an audio-buddy of mine upgraded his cartridge to
a more expensive Transfiguration Spirit to find out what the digital audio
artifacts of the JVC DAS-90 mastered digital recording sounds like. It was a
Classical vinyl LP of Weber’s Clarinet Quintet from the American Nonesuch
label. And he apparently only got a better sounding set-up as a result – as in
a better quality analog sounding set-up. So is digitally recorded vinyl better
than the Redbook spec CD? During the mid 1990s – such questions and actual
side-by-side vinyl versus CD experimentations only add fuel to the fire to the
digital versus analog debate.
The mid 1980s was also the time when I started my first
forays into serious hi-fi. Even the contemporary major releases of the time
were full of hype about the benefits of digital audio recording and mastering.
During the time, Sony 32-track open-reel digital recording machines and its
attendant 32-track digital mixer and the 32-track digital mastering machine
working at the Sony-Philips Redbook spec of 16-Bit 44.1-KHz sapling were
probably the de rigueur of most major label releases. Well at least Judas
Priest’s Turbo, Scorpions’ Love At First Sting, Mötley Crüe’s Girls, Girls,
Girls and Heart’s Bad Animals were the albums that landed on the upper echelons
of the Billboard Charts while being flogged as full digital recordings. And you
know what – they are apparently indistinguishable from their 24-track analog
mastered brethren when played on contemporary digital gear, well, apart form a
slightly flattened dynamics due to the limitations of 16-bit digital.
The main reason why
in the pro studio world recording engineers chose analog over digital is that
analog overloads gracefully while digital – especially of the lower-spec 16-Bit
variety – tend to be very unforgiving when it “hits the red”. And the low
sampling rate produces digital nasties that even heavy metal rock musicians and
their attendant mixing and mastering engineers exposed to almost constant 120
dB SPL’s of mayhem can hear, its no contest that analog wins even at the very
tail end of the 20th Century. Given the proliferation of 24-Bit
192-KHz sampled “improved digital”, know of any heavy metal musicians mastering
their works on 24-Bit 192-KHz digital?
