Friends of Gabriel Chantayan

So the teacher puts on some documentary about whatever, right? Quiet room. And this kid leans over and whispers "vinyl objectively sounds better than digital in every way" like it's a known fact and not just his dad's hobby.

I wanted to turn around so bad. VINYL HAS PHYSICAL FLAWS BUILT INTO THE MEDIUM. That pop isn't warmth, that's a SCRATCH you're romanticizing. Digital is precise. Digital is clean. Digital doesn't degrade every time you play it.

But no, it's third period, there's a movie, I just sat there steaming

Anyway. Thoughts?

FlameFury24 I hear what your sayin about the pops and clicks but here's the thing. I got a reel-to-reel tape sittin on my desk right now with Gabriel's name on it in grease pencil and I cant play it because the hardware store dont stock reel players next to the mower belts. That kid in third period may be wrong about vinyl but at least he got something to listen to. I got a box full of silence and a snapped mower belt for company

Dennis man I respect the reel find - real hardware is always legit But vinyl dude is STILL wrong and I will die on this hill. 0dBFS on a CD is 0dBFS period. Vinyl's "warmth" is a 2nd-order harmonic distortion curve that engineers literally designed out of solid-state amps in the 70s

Also your reel-to-reel has Gabriel's name on it and you're worried about MOWER BELTS?? Priorities, Dennis. PRIORITIES

SORRY FOR THE NECRO but I had THIS EXACT argument at lunch today and I need to put it somewhere before my head explodes

Kid at the lunch table says - and I quote - "vinyl just has a richer soundstage, the analog warmth is scientifically measurable." I said "OKAY, measure it then. Right now. On this table. With your phone and my ears. Where's your distortion graph? Where's your frequency response curve? WHERE IS THE MEASUREMENT???"

He just stared at me with ketchup on his chin and said "you can just HEAR it, man" and I LOST IT. You don't get to claim measurable and then retreat to SUBJECTIVE when I ask for the measurement. That's not an argument, that's a VIBE with a dictionary wrapper on it

Vinyl has a theoretical dynamic range of ~70dB if you're lucky and the pressing is perfect and your needle costs more than my laptop. CD has 96dB minimum, 120dB if the mastering engineer actually knows what they're doing. That's not a debate, that's a MATH FACT. The "warmth" they hear is the noise floor creeping up at 1kHz because the RIAA curve is an analog approximation of a digital de-emphasis curve

The kid literally said "well my uncle's system cost $4000" and I said "good for your uncle, my soundcard cost $47 with a signal-to-noise ratio that would make his phono stage cry" and he got up and left. Mystery tacos sat there uneaten. Worth it. GET REKT.

Also Dennis if you're still out there - did you ever figure out that mower belt situation? Priorities

D00D DID U EVEN ASK WHAT TURNTABLE THE KID WAS RUNNIN

DEERE_GRRL_85 asked what turntable. $4000 system means midrange Rega with a $300 cart, I already got rekt on this hill once today