The Paradox Of Why Vinyl Sounds Better.....

[awkwardbydesign]

Mastering is a hard job.

Is that the difference? People making the difference?

[Vinyl and Tube Dude]

(Loud) Sound on my Hi-fi system: CD's have fast pace, headroom, slam bass, clean highs and a good amount of details, I enjoy listning to CD's and find the music overwhelming.It's a great way to clear my head if I had a hard day at work or something like that. LP's have a more organic sound, rolled off highs even on insane guitarsolos, a tad slower pace than the CD's, deeb full bass and less details than CD's (because I have a better DAC than TT). I enjoy listning to LP's and find the music involving and relaxing. It's a great way to charge up the batteries before or after work (work day and evening shifts) or just having a good moment at a day off. I like both, but listen to far more LP's than CD's and only buy CD's when it's not out on vinyl. Even brandnew productions (recorded into a harddrive I guess) sounds really got on vinyl. I only have two new LP's that sound compressed and flat, the rest is as good as my original LP's from the '60's '70's '80's and '90's

[lojyo610]

I purchased a new, remastered Pink Floyd "Dark Side of the Moon". I believe its an Audio Fidelity, 180 Gram virgin vinyl. I thought it sounded a bit flat and lifeless. I compared it to an original pressing I bought at a second hand LP store and there was a noticiable difference in dynamics. The original pressing had a lot more substance and depth, but it was pretty beat up and I had to listen through the pops and crackles. So what gives? I thought all this cool remastered from the original analog 1/2 track tape and such would make a new LP great. Anybody out there have a rationale for this?

[flavio81]

good vinyl sounds good. By good I mean well mastered, well engineered, well pressed, well packaged, and well stored. I'll take well reproduced as a given

good cds (or other digital format) sounds good within the context of hte same qualifications as they apply.

Here in NZ we had years of crap vinyl. second rate masters, poor pressings, low quality. We rejoiced when cd arrived - freed from the horror of variation in output.

cd then was an audiophile item.

Now, we are subjected to cd's mastered for demanding playback locations - the inside of an automobile. They sound like crap. Every control at the mix desk is set to 11. No depth for this reason. Shouty. Horrid.

Vinyl sounds great by comparison, no question. But not because of the format.

The experience of vinyl? Far outsrtips digital. Those poxy little jewel cases and piss poor artwork (if any) are no match for 12 x 12

Pretty well put!

[Aural Addict]

Agree'd.... I use all lossless through a DacMagic and it sounds great to me. Then I bought a TT. I hardly listen to digital now and that's what my system was built for. While I think vinyl sounds better, it's beyond that. Just the experience of changing a record, sitting down, and listening to the whole thing is so much better than flipping through my music on an iPad from the couch.

The vinyl experience is just better, more intimate

[lbgrrl]

I enjoy the warm sound of vinyl more than the precision sound of CDs. But it is truly the *experience* of listening to vinyl that I enjoy most. You have to sit and listen, not clean the house or give the dog a bath. Vinyl requires you to actually get up and change the record sides, at least, so you actually concentrate on the music and experience it. I have so many happy memories of bringing home the latest Paul McCartney/Wings album, opening the shrink wrap and seeing that new shiny disk, bursting with potential, songs waiting to be heard that I did not yet know. I have never once felt that way about a CD, not even his. Whoever your favorite artist is, did you not feel the same? And the album cover artwork, the lyric sheets, the little posters and promotional things you would get--all of that added to the experience and has been forever lost in the crappy CD packaging and those f-ing little boxes, oh my God I hate them. It is not just nostalgia for my youth--I had 8-tracks as a teenager and I do not long for those miserable things--and I never liked cassettes either (how many of those unreeled themselves in my car deck?)

[Hermionediamond]

A pal of mine has two lovely Hi-fi systems: one fed by a Michell Gyro and the other fed by a Mac through a Rega DAC and Exposure amp into ProAc speakers. Both use excellent components and sound great. A couple of weeks ago we were having a beer and playing a few tunes off the Mac. Robert Plant's Silver Rider off The Band of Joy album started to play and we just stopped what we we're talking about and listened. It's a fabulous, atmospheric track. We then got talking about the Band of Joy album and thought we should compare the MP3 version we had just played to the vinyl version. Oh my, what a difference. We both agreed the vinyl version sounded much better than the MP3. Much more open and atmospheric. We then spent the next two hours spinning the Gyro!

[Ottermel]

Ah, but the digital version should have been at full resolution and NOT MP3. That way. it would have been closer to vinyl.

[lojyo610]

Yeah, try a lossless file format like flac or Apple Lossless. These files play at 96kHz/24-bit/s vs 44.1khz/320-kbit/s for the highest quality mp3's. General mp3's play at 128-kbit/s. I can't even tolerate listening to mp3's through my entry level 2 channel system. They sound okay in the car through my ipod, however, as I'm way too lazy for CD's while driving.

[Hermionediamond]

Ah, but the digital version should have been at full resolution and NOT MP3. That way. it would have been closer to vinyl.

It was a lossless file! I'm not saying the lossless version sounded bad, far from it, it sounded great! The vinyl version just sounded better!

[A.Wayne]

A pal of mine has two lovely Hi-fi systems: one fed by a Michell Gyro and the other fed by a Mac through a Rega DAC and Exposure amp into ProAc speakers. Both use excellent components and sound great. A couple of weeks ago we were having a beer and playing a few tunes off the Mac. Robert Plant's Silver Rider off The Band of Joy album started to play and we just stopped what we we're talking about and listened. It's a fabulous, atmospheric track. We then got talking about the Band of Joy album and thought we should compare the MP3 version we had just played to the vinyl version. Oh my, what a difference. We both agreed the vinyl version sounded much better than the MP3. Much more open and atmospheric. We then spent the next two hours spinning the Gyro!

MP3 .......

[awkwardbydesign]

Now I'm old, the writing on CDs is too small to read, LPs mean far too much getting up and walking, computers and files and stuff are far too complicated, and I can't play an instrument to make my own music. What to do?

[lojyo610]

FM radio can be good. Better listen now because everything will be streamed digitally pretty soon.

[flavio81]

FM radio can be good. Better listen now because everything will be streamed digitally pretty soon.

Here practically all FM stations source their audio from very very lousy MP3 files. FM radio has never sounded so bad.