Kraftwerk, Analogue Or Digital, Which Sounds Better?

Greetings Anyone... (!). I kind of post this in case it is a perspective no-one considers much of late...

FREQUENCY RESPONSE. The past 15-20 Years, most Headphones and Recordings are limited to 20-20,000 Hz. The fashionable MP3 format is said to only record within this range.

...Back before the Zeros (2000) it was easier to gain a pair of headphones with frequency Response *below* 20Hz; ones starting around 16 Hz used to be popular if looked for (it said so on the back of the packaging). It should go without saying that below 20Hz gives better Bass (Drums, Chello) and above 20,000Hz gives better higher-pitched 'things' (Piccolo, Percussion)... sorry if I do not know the precise terms...

But recordings depend upon how they were recorded and transferred. "Live" performances use all frequencies so are of course the best of all. (I end this post now in case I am waffling on about something no-one else gets...!)

...If anyone still has the packaging of a pair of headphones which they really like, it should say this upon the back, so have a go at looking. 'Bye for now. 

Hiya

There's a bit more to add to that - the digital recordings have hard filters to remove anything above 20k  where you hit the Nyquist frequency of the sampling which is max freq + 10% - so 22kHz x2 - which is where you see the 44.1kHz number come from.

But this doesn't take into account about the way higher frequencies than 20k intermix with the lower frequencies so there's a really subtle change.

MP3 is a disaster - really compressed and frequency chopped to fit into a smaller file size - exactly the same as .jpg vs .bmp.     bmp is the full data whereas jpg is hacked down - the difference is clear when you zoom in.

The problem with looking at frequency response data is they often lie or cheat - the frequency response should be to the -3dB points at top and bottom ends - often they quote -10dB points which is useless and means nothing.

Hiya

There's a bit more to add to that - the digital recordings have hard filters to remove anything above 20k  where you hit the Nyquist frequency of the sampling which is max freq + 10% - so 22kHz x2 - which is where you see the 44.1kHz number come from.

But this doesn't take into account about the way higher frequencies than 20k intermix with the lower frequencies so there's a really subtle change.

MP3 is a disaster - really compressed and frequency chopped to fit into a smaller file size - exactly the same as .jpg vs .bmp.     bmp is the full data whereas jpg is hacked down - the difference is clear when you zoom in.

The problem with looking at frequency response data is they often lie or cheat - the frequency response should be to the -3dB points at top and bottom ends - often they quote -10dB points which is useless and means nothing.

Hello Plastic,

thank you for the interesting link to the supplier of synths. I do remember reading about the revival of the Moog sometime ago. Good to know they can be linked to modern computers.

Thank You very so awfully much for an answer, Mr. Plastic. Really. I would like to post a really good answer but all I can think of just now is acknowledgement. Technology progresses faster than I can *afford* to follow nowadays. So all I can say is Thanks again for adding that Post to My post.