Quote:
Originally Posted by dannything
question for the audio-philes: i've seen rips of vinyl records at a pretty high sample rate upped on the net as flacs. what kind of set up is required to get the best possible sound?
another random question: what's the job of a pre-amp?
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What do you mean what kind of setup is required to get the best possible sound. What kind of stereo you have? Or are you talking about how to best rip vinyls/cd's?
As for a pre-amp.. think about an amplifier as two components in a box. You have the trafo which amplifies the signal and then you need a way to get the signal from your cd player, vinyl, pc whatever into the amplifier. You also need something to control how much amplification to apply to the signal (otherwise known as volume).
When you have all that in one box, it's called an
integrated amplifier (because it integrates both components needed to successfully send a signal to your speakers). Now think about the two components in two separate boxes:
Power amplifier: Trafo, input from pre-amplifier, outputs to speakers.
Pre-amplifier: Volume control, inputs from outside sources (cd players, record players, etc).
The pre-amplifier is doing everything that needs to be done to the signal pre-amplification. ;-)
There are of course alot more to it, but hopefully this was easy to understand. Also, with record players, the signal coming from the record player is much weaker (-60dB) than anything coming from cdplayers and computers for instance. This means you need either a RIAA, which is an amplifier you connect between the record player and the pre-amp, or the pre-amp got it's own Phono Stage, which is basically just a RIAA within the pre-amp box, so you can connect the record player directly to the pre-amp. The RIAA will amplify the signal up to the industry standard (-10dB) so that it matches the input on the pre-amplifier.
The reason a signal needs to be amplified is because to be able to move the membrane of the elements in the speakers, you need powerful sound waves. Also, there is a resistance in the elements and cables. This is measured in ohm. Think about it this way: sound moves in waves. To be able to
push the waves further away (from the amplifier to the speakers to your ear), you need to apply more power (more amplification). It's really simple physics when you think about it.
One last thing. The reason most people say vinyl is "warmer" or "more lush" or whatever, is usually because when you deal with analog sound, the signal has never passed into the digital domain. At once sound passes into the digital domain, the sinus curve of the wave will change from a natural smooth wave to a harder rectangular one. 0's and 1's you know. There is nothing in between. What all this means is that the sound of the instruments you hear when the sound is digital will be different than the sound of the instruments you hear when the sound is analog. The digital sound will sound harsher, more unnatural. Again, simple physics.
Phew ok. The last last thing. Suppose you have a vinyl edition of Big Whisky. If they pressed the
digital version of the master on the vinyl, the instruments will sound unnatural and harsh (ie, the same as the CD version). If they did it the right way and mastered the mix in analogue, the sound will be much closer to what actually came out of the instruments in the studio and it will sound "warmer".
Sound is so subjective.