Vinyl vs. Digital?

Ok, here is the deal. From a simple objective standpoint, I think high quality digital and uber clean and high quality vinyl playback can both be extremely pleasing and possibly hard to tell apart. That said, they really are not the same, since even 16 bit digital has a much wider dynamic range than vinyl records. Most quality CDs have minimal compression and most vinyl records do have a fair amount of compression to fit within the rather limited dynamic range of the medium. Then there is the question of the source material for the mastering of the CD or the record. If the original is an old noisy analog tape even the CD will sound noisy, if the vinyl record was made from an early generation digital master then the vinyl record can sound pretty lifeless and dull. Then there is the subjective process of mastering. Who did the mastering? Where was it done and with what gear?

So what am I getting at?

Yesterday, I dusted off the original The Cars CD and thought I'd give it a listen... it sounded pretty poor. I hadn't played it much, probably because it sounded so bad, but I started thinking, that album was one of my references back in college. I pulled the record from my collection... the same disc I had played decades earlier but probably not once since the '80s. It sounded great. The mix was different, the vocals were not so edgy and up front and in my face, the tone was much richer, the overall sound was much more pleasing to me. Now, I am not saying that vinyl is all of these things and digital is not, I am saying the particular CD I have and the particular vinyl album I have do not sound remotely similar and in this case, I much prefer the analog record.

I then compared an audiophile vinyl record of a fairly recent Norah Jones album and the CD... they sounded fairly similar. Here, if I had a better DAC perhaps I would prefer the digital, as it turns out I still preferred the analog record, but the digital was also quite enjoyable... so perhaps the question shouldn't be format as much as who mastered the particular cut and how good of a job they did.


Just something to think about... for me the quest is shifting. For years I never felt my gear was good enough, now it is more a matter of the recordings. Instead of finding the perfect speaker wire, I'd suggest find the best recordings of the music you like. Obviously often times we don't have choices, but for many of these classics, there are numerous choices out there. If others have had similar experiences, it would be nice to compile a do and don't list.


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