Vinyl Studio Pro Review

[Kristin Banyas]

VinylStudiowas designed to be a standalone program for getting your vinyl records onto your computer. At $30, its a fairly inexpensive, yet still pretty capable program. You can use it to burn CDs of your records if you like, or save the files in a number of different formats besides MP3s, including WAV, AAC (Advanced Audio Coding), AIFF (Audio Interchange File Format), ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codec), DFF, DSF, (there are different types of Direct Stream Digital formats) FLAC Free Lossless Audio Codec), and OGG (Ogg Vorbis open-source format).

a big part of this review is missing. what MP3 encoder is included and how does it sound to your ears? are the tracks normalized manually, automatically, or not at all? the codec, normalization, and mp3 bit rate all play a major role in a archive quality MP3 or something like a throw away one time pleasure.

The LP, the vinyl is a lot better. I would rate it an 8.

It's actually Ok.

The digital hi rez. download and the CD are awful. Compressed and squashed. Unplayable. And I tried.

The digital, CD and 96/24 files have average DR of 5.

The vinyl LP has average DR of 10.

The CD of the album, and at least one download version, has been measured and posted at the DR Database as being a shocking DR5. Terrible, awful.

There is apparently an atmos version that has a DR12 rating, which is fantastic. Any advice on where that can be found?

I had hoped against hope that we would be spared the limiting on vinyl, but my heart stopped when I saw a pic of how at least one side has virtually no dead wax, with content running right to the label. Loud mastering = more room needed for grooves. Ugh...UGH!!Your review and comments so far seem to cement that sad fact.

Audiophiles need to know where that DR12 version is - that's the only one worth listening to.

I listened to the vinyl at a friends hi-fi. The sound is so flat/loud that no warmth remained in the songs. The songs might be better, if the sound quality would be better.

I would rate ist Music 5, Sound 5. Maybe, better sound would lift the Music note. But, as it is now, no interest in buying the record in any format at all.

Ok, it's clear, 24-bit is better than 16-bit.

But, why digital (24-bit streaming/Blu-ray/SACD) is the Reference.

Wouldn't it be better to admit that the producer made the wrong decision, since it is possible to record Analogue, and also broadcast through digital remasters, for industrial streamers.

But, using a digital source for the Vinyl was a mistake, because this is a Band that can make High Fidelity Recordings, instead of recording in a mediocre digital studio.

I agree with all of You. All the hype and praise for the production really collide with the actual result, which is far worse than expected, far worse than 2005 Bigger Bang, way too much your ears and brain can tolerate. The album would be nice. If only the big guests could be given their share: who can appreciate Elton's piano amidst all that mess? Who can enjoy the sax when it's soaked in noise and distortion? And Paul's distorted bass?

We miss the long awaited date with this Stones album. Good ideas. Wrong engineering. A totally wasted opportunity for stones *and* music lovers.

We can safely give a 1 to the sound quality.

Hard to find worse out there.

that the many reviews of this album in all magazines (apart from the audiophile ones) do not say a word about the sound quality. Everybody gets nervous listen to the compressed music. All of my non-audiophile friends and colleagues, too. The Stones must miss a fortune by killing their own songs.

While we, of course, love the Stones to no end, it's quite obvious to our audiophile-centric ears that their new LP in particular could greatly benefit from another mix by, well, almost anyone -- but who? Don Was? Chris Kimsey? Steve Jordan? Rob Fraboni? Other suggestions are very much welcome... Log in or register to post comments funny thing is Submitted by PeterPani on Mon, 2023-11-06 02:31 the live youtube video of the Stones with Lady Gaga sounds so much better than the vinyl track. Crazy times, when a live youtube video gives better sound than a millions sold record.

I am pretty sure, that every music lover enjoys good sound. He/she might not be able to talk about it and thinks it is just "better" music, but in the end it is part of the decision to buy or not buy a certain piece of music.

ALO Audio is where the amp and phono stage came from, and Ken Ball, head honcho at ALO Audio in Portland OR sold me the setup. I was recently at ALO Audio and picked up some headphones and an Astell & Kern AK 120II high res player. When I was there I eyeballed the Studio Six, not even knowing what it is. To be honest, most of my HIFi Experience has been with 2 channel speakers and amps, not so much hi end headphones and amps. Even so, I was fascinated by the six tubes atop the amp, and the fact that they believed in this amp so much that they created an all tube phono stage that ONLY works with the Studio 6 Amp! It is THAT good.

So Ken Ball, the head guy at ALO Audio decided he would send me some of his personal headphones to test out with his amp. HOW COOL WAS THAT?!? He sent over the HD800, Ultrasone 9, Grado PS500, Oppo PM-1 and I already own the HE-1000.

Wow. Just wow. This headphone, to me, is the best in the world. There may be more expensive headphones (Stax) or headphones that are said to be just as good (HD800) but neither of these give me what the HE-1000 gives me, especially with the Studio 6 amp and phono stage. (See my review of the HE-1000 HERE)

The HD800 has long been regarded as one of the best headphones available (unless you step up to a $5k and up price bracket) but so many get frustrated with it as it is is VERY finicky when it comes to choosing an amp to pair with it. I have tested it with an older Musical Fidelity and now the Studio Six (and MHA100). The best I have ever heard the HD800 comes from the Studio Six. When listening to digital or vinyl I am rewarded with a big sound, details, and even some warmth which takes the HD800 up a notch for me. I waste of those who had this set long ago and sold them as they become tough to listen to for more than an hour. They would give me a headache with the excited upper energy present and lack of mid bass. This time around on the Studio 6 the HD800 took on a new life and while they still fell short of term HE-1000 by quite a large margin, they sounded incredible and have I not just sat with the HE-1000 for 2 hours I would never have noticed the weaknesses of this headphone.

The HE-1000 offers up a HUGE tonal pallette that leans ever so slightly to the warm rich side of neutral but it offers this while giving more detail than the HD800, giving a more impressive soundstage width and height and somehow manages to keep it all fluid and coherent, making music. The HD800 to me, sounds a little disjointed. But since this is not a headphone review I will state that I never heard the HD800 sound better than I did on the S6 and S6 Phono Stage. If you own an HD800 and love it, you owe it to yourself to try them with the ALO Studio 6.

So goes to show this amp can power hard rot drive headphones as well as uber sensitive ones. Never do I hear any hum, buzz or noises when I have the amp on though the Phono stage can put out some noise on sensitive headphones, until you drop the needle.

I checked out the Fox Abstract Champagne Portrait Vinyl Photos Backdrop for this review and tutorial. My backdrop is 7-by-12 feet and I paired it with a heavy-duty backdrop stand. The backdrop is made of heavy-duty vinyl with an abstract pattern printed on it. The edges are darker to give a vignette effect, though this can be avoided if you shoot tight.

The warm neutral color means you can style this in a lot of different ways. I would always recommend a neutral backdrop for your first portable studio setup: You will get more life out of it than a novelty print such as flowers, stars, etc.

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Jemma is a photographer on the Sunshine Coast in Australia, where she photographs in between mothering her two little boys, and writing, teaching and designing for creative people. She delivers free photo prompts on her blog the Promptographer Photo Prompt Guide.

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As far as I was concerned, Pure Vinyl was an interestingconcept, but I wrote it off and continued with my regular reviewing duties. Lastsummer, the big buzz in computer audio playback for the Mac OSX platform wasSonic Studio's Amarra, ($299 to $995) a program that works hand in hand withiTunes and OSX Core Audio to improve the quality of music playback. I contactedthem to obtain an evaluation copy for review purposes. What I was offered wasthe same "cripple ware" demo version offered to consumers that would mute theaudio every 20 to 30 seconds or so. This made comparisons between "regular"iTunes and Amarra impossible. Also, at the time, Amarra did not support AppleLossless files, which many of my music files are. This issue has now beenrectified. I want to also make it clear that while I did not expect a free copyof Amarra, I did expect something that could be used for meaningful comparisonand evaluation, like a fully functional copy that would self destruct in acouple of weeks. There was no way I could continue with a review under thoseconditions, so I wrote Amarra off as well.

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