Wirelss Headphones For Vinyl?
Discussion
Probably a really stupid question. I'm prepared to be mocked mercilessly.
I listen to a lot of vinyl. Surely that's not compatible with wireless headphones. Converting the warm analogue sound into digital for Bluetooth. That's why I've never even considered them.
But I saw today an advert for a wireless turntable, that sends the vinyl signal by Bluetooth to the speakers that can be anywhere within range. So maybe if a wireless turntable is a thing, I have it wrong and I've misunderstood how it works.
I listen to a lot of vinyl. Surely that's not compatible with wireless headphones. Converting the warm analogue sound into digital for Bluetooth. That's why I've never even considered them.
But I saw today an advert for a wireless turntable, that sends the vinyl signal by Bluetooth to the speakers that can be anywhere within range. So maybe if a wireless turntable is a thing, I have it wrong and I've misunderstood how it works.
TwigtheWonderkid said:
Probably a really stupid question. I'm prepared to be mocked mercilessly.
I listen to a lot of vinyl. Surely that's not compatible with wireless headphones. Converting the warm analogue sound into digital for Bluetooth. That's why I've never even considered them.
But I saw today an advert for a wireless turntable, that sends the vinyl signal by Bluetooth to the speakers that can be anywhere within range. So maybe if a wireless turntable is a thing, I have it wrong and I've misunderstood how it works.
I can't answer the question directly, but have you tried listening to vinyl through even normal headphones? I have got a reasonably good turntable setup, but when I listen to it through headphones I can really hear the surface noise coming through - it is almost impossible to hear any noise at all on the same records through speakers. It is digital for me when listening on headphones, and vinyl at all other times.I listen to a lot of vinyl. Surely that's not compatible with wireless headphones. Converting the warm analogue sound into digital for Bluetooth. That's why I've never even considered them.
But I saw today an advert for a wireless turntable, that sends the vinyl signal by Bluetooth to the speakers that can be anywhere within range. So maybe if a wireless turntable is a thing, I have it wrong and I've misunderstood how it works.
Monty Python said:
It depends. If you're an "audiophile", then probably not. If you just want to listen to the music then they'll probably suffice. Despite what people say, vinyl isn't "better" than CD - it's different, and whether it's "better" or not is down to individual taste.
I agree that it's different. I happen to prefer it, but others may not. I get that. I find vinyl has a "warmth". CDs are "brighter". My point is, won't the difference that you get from vinyl be lost if you listen thru Bluetooth headphones. Because the analogue "warmth" will be lost when converting it to a digital signal? TwigtheWonderkid said:
I agree that it's different. I happen to prefer it, but others may not. I get that. I find vinyl has a "warmth". CDs are "brighter". My point is, won't the difference that you get from vinyl be lost if you listen thru Bluetooth headphones. Because the analogue "warmth" will be lost when converting it to a digital signal?
Unlikely - my own (probably wrong) view is that some people prefer vinyl because it's "noisier" - there's a higher noise floor in the recording and as we don't live in a silent world, we expect to have a certain level of background noise.Therefore, the "noise" that's present in a vinyl recording won't be lost simply by encoding it - it'll still be there.
You could always try encoding a vinyl track into MP3 or other compressed format and listen to it with normal headphones - if that's okay then it should be fine.
There are some reviews here that may be of help: http://www.techradar.com/news/audio/portable-audio...
TwigtheWonderkid said:
I agree that it's different. I happen to prefer it, but others may not. I get that. I find vinyl has a "warmth". CDs are "brighter". My point is, won't the difference that you get from vinyl be lost if you listen thru Bluetooth headphones. Because the analogue "warmth" will be lost when converting it to a digital signal?
There are a lot of variables. The reason that a lot of albums sound better on vinyl is actually because the CD allows a recording to be captured with much more 'loudness' which means you get higher volume but a completely crushed dynamic range. Great for this year's X Factor winner's album, not so good for most music.I have got a lot of records that sound better than the equivalent CD, some that sound worse and some that sound exactly the same.
If the mastering used for the CD and vinyl versions is identical then feasibly the final sound should be the same with the only difference being introduced by the kit itself. You could feasibly get the opposite of the effect you are experiencing by buying a warm sounding CD player/DAC and a cold/bright sounding cartridge/phono stage.
In reality, the mastering on a lot of the albums I have got is so much better on vinyl than CD that you'd have to use a really low end record player compared to a really high end digital set up to make them sound comparable. That is why we put up with the cost/hassle/surface noise!
Monty Python said:
That may be true older recordings, but nowadays CDs and vinyl are produced from the same digital master (usually recorded at 24-bit/192kHz).
Indeed. I always search out the AAA recordings. The Beatles Mono boxset is one recent release that really stands out as being better on vinyl than CD, but there are some others as well.TwigtheWonderkid said:
I agree that it's different. I happen to prefer it, but others may not. I get that. I find vinyl has a "warmth". CDs are "brighter". My point is, won't the difference that you get from vinyl be lost if you listen thru Bluetooth headphones. Because the analogue "warmth" will be lost when converting it to a digital signal?
Analogue to digital conversion is lossless, up to the Nyquist frequency (half the sample rate). The 'warmth' comes from noise and distortion from the playback system. You will still get most of this because a lot of it comes from surface noise, the stylus, and the pre-amp - the A-D conversion will take place after the pre-amp.The commonly used standard for transmitting audio over Bluetooth is A2DP. A2DP is just a transport for audio streams, and in theory it could transmit lossless audio, if the bandwidth allows. The only codec that is mandatory though is SBC, which is lossy. At higher bitrates it's decent, and transparent for most people.
Monty Python said:
That may be true older recordings, but nowadays CDs and vinyl are produced from the same digital master (usually recorded at 24-bit/192kHz).
While that is true, the process for mastering CD and vinyl are quite different, so the end result is not the same. TwigtheWonderkid said:
So in conclusion, it wasn't the stupid question I thought it might be, but essentially, I was wrong. Vinyl listened to with bluetooth headphones will still sound vinylly, for want of a better word.
Correct. You won't get any colouration added by your amp and speakers though, obviously. IIRC, some companies do make wireless headphones that are lossless, which use a proprietary connection instead of Bluetooth. So there are options if you are concerned about the lossy codec generally used by bluetooth headphones.
TwigtheWonderkid said:
So in conclusion, it wasn't the stupid question I thought it might be, but essentially, I was wrong. Vinyl listened to with bluetooth headphones will still sound vinylly, for want of a better word.
Yes, but listen to the headphones first! Even wired headphones can be bright and brash.Ultimately, vinyl wipes the floor with any digital format, though you'll be into tens of thousands to hear each of those able to compete. The noise floor can be just as low with the best TTs.
At any level, though, if you choose vinyl as a format, why out it through digital conversion to go wireless?
As had been said, why not try normal headphones with a cable? If you're moving around, doing other things, the quality won't matter anyway!
At any level, though, if you choose vinyl as a format, why out it through digital conversion to go wireless?
As had been said, why not try normal headphones with a cable? If you're moving around, doing other things, the quality won't matter anyway!
I don't have a massively expensive system, a Yamaha CRX-M170 DAB/CD/AMP, and Audio Technica LP120 turntable (Technics SL1200 replica) and some Eltax floorstanding speakers. But for me it does everything I need it to do well enough. Even at this humble level, the vinyl sounds better than the CD player. Well to me anyway.
robbyd said:
Ultimately, vinyl wipes the floor with any digital format, though you'll be into tens of thousands to hear each of those able to compete. The noise floor can be just as low with the best TTs.
At any level, though, if you choose vinyl as a format, why out it through digital conversion to go wireless?
As had been said, why not try normal headphones with a cable? If you're moving around, doing other things, the quality won't matter anyway!
How can it when the quality varies not only across the record but from one record to another? When it comes to subjective assesments like this, you cannot say A is better than B because there is no test you can do to definitively prove it. If you stuck an F1 next to and F40 and asked 100 people to say which exhaust note they preferred you wouldn't get a unanimous decision because it's down to personal preference and nothing else. It's exactly the same with vinyl, CD and every other music format.At any level, though, if you choose vinyl as a format, why out it through digital conversion to go wireless?
As had been said, why not try normal headphones with a cable? If you're moving around, doing other things, the quality won't matter anyway!
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