Question Poll, what do you think, is vinyl better or CD?

[Fandango Andy]

They aren't better or worse, just different.

 

[podknocker]

So oversimplified a question I cannot answer.
Better at what?
Depends entirely on what you have built your system around.

To me, a music format needs to get as close to the original recording as possible. High fidelity, faithful reproduction, regardless of which sound you prefer. If you don't like the sound of a particular format, then you're listening to rubbish recordings and it might be a good idea to see what a good recording on a modern format can sound like. It is down to mastering and similar. A new 24 bit recording will sound crazy good on a device dedicated to this level of resolution and other technical attributes. Modern state of the art recordings are wasted on old formats.

 

[Friesiansam]

I did not ask, which format is better, I asked, which do you think is better. Just click your choice from 3 options, is that really too difficult to understand?

I despair for this community...

 

[Fandango Andy]

I did not ask, which format is better, I asked, which do you think is better. Just click your choice from 3 options, is that really too difficult to understand?

I despair for this community...

On a positive note for the health and longevity of the community, you have attracted almost as many comments as votes!

 

[My2Cents]

I despair too! (I'm actually in despair and desperate)... perhaps (as the Eagles stated) we're all Desperado's? LOL

 

[podknocker]

I did not ask, which format is better, I asked, which do you think is better. Just click your choice from 3 options, is that really too difficult to understand?

I despair for this community...

People THINK a format is better, because they believe IT IS better, Their opinion is derived from exposure to a specific format and their experience of listening to a particular format. It's the same thing.

 

[podknocker]

Technically CD blows vinyl out of the water in every department, however it's the mastering that counts, and a good master on vinyl will leave a poor master on CD for dead. (Although not relevant to this thread the same applies to other methods as well)

Bill

IF you have a perfect transfer and master to CD, then this will sound better than a perfect transfer, master to vinyl. The ONLY reason vinyl can sound better than CD, is when you have careful transfer to vinyl and the same album dumped onto CD as an afterthought. Technically, CD is superior and can deliver better sound quality, though often falls short, because many studios and mastering companies don't appreciate the sound quality CD is capable of. It's been around 41 years and it's still neglected and regarded as something not worth caring about. It's such a shame. A modern 24 bit recording has to be decimated to the CD spec, 1411kbps, but a higher resolution copy of that recording will obviously sound better on a new format, such as an online platform. Online services can offer higher than CD quality. These files are even closer to the original recording.

 

[My2Cents]

How about half speed mastering (and also 45RPM 12" vinyl)... they are still trying to get more out of vinyl! Technically it hasn't reached it's peak yet!

 

[nads]

Define Better?

 

[My2Cents]

Here's a pic of some lovely ladies at the old EMI/HMV pressing plant in Hayes, Middlesex packaging Rubber Soul... they sure look happy! (I think a couple of 'em must have a crush on Paul... or perhaps Ringo)?
The plant is still in operation and is currently putting out over 2 million records a year!
The records stacked up there seem to look rather thick to my eyes?

Plant - The Vinyl Factory

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thevinylfactory.com

 

[GSV Ethics Gradient]

Define Better?

I don't think it would be unreasonable for the OP to suggest that would be your responsibility if you want to participate in the thread.

 

[abacus]

IF you have a perfect transfer and master to CD, then this will sound better than a perfect transfer, master to vinyl. The ONLY reason vinyl can sound better than CD, is when you have careful transfer to vinyl and the same album dumped onto CD as an afterthought. Technically, CD is superior and can deliver better sound quality, though often falls short, because many studios and mastering companies don't appreciate the sound quality CD is capable of. It's been around 41 years and it's still neglected and regarded as something not worth caring about. It's such a shame. A modern 24 bit recording has to be decimated to the CD spec, 1411kbps, but a higher resolution copy of that recording will obviously sound better on a new format, such as an online platform. Online services can offer higher than CD quality. These files are even closer to the original recording.

Er, that's what the post you are commenting on says.

Bill

 

[Rui]

IF you have a perfect transfer and master to CD, then this will sound better than a perfect transfer, master to vinyl. The ONLY reason vinyl can sound better than CD, is when you have careful transfer to vinyl and the same album dumped onto CD as an afterthought. Technically, CD is superior and can deliver better sound quality, though often falls short, because many studios and mastering companies don't appreciate the sound quality CD is capable of. It's been around 41 years and it's still neglected and regarded as something not worth caring about. It's such a shame. A modern 24 bit recording has to be decimated to the CD spec, 1411kbps, but a higher resolution copy of that recording will obviously sound better on a new format, such as an online platform. Online services can offer higher than CD quality. These files are even closer to the original recording.

that is phisically impossible, but i understand when people say the cd as better sound, today is dificult with the turntables available and this modern cartyridges and stylus , industry would never let new fashion of having records be above cd level only the ones who had a good so9und when they bought a cd player, expensive one, they for sure notice the missing partrs of their favorite songs, like it happened with me, i have maybe around 50 cds from old lp´s i had and bought without second thought the titles that were myfavorite , i haven´t heard one of them bought in 1993 ,i thought it would be a improvement but i was 50% wrong ,the drum kick and bass are ok the voice ,keyboards and six string guitars are changed at the sound and level heard, i even asked myself ,"did i liked this...? i must have been very high,...? it sounds horrible"but then i put a record to play and....oh!?

 

[GSV Ethics Gradient]

that is phisically impossible, but i understand when people say the cd as better sound, today is dificult with the turntables available and this modern cartyridges and stylus , industry would never let new fashion of having records be above cd level only the ones who had a good so9und when they bought a cd player, expensive one, they for sure notice the missing partrs of their favorite songs, like it happened with me, i have maybe around 50 cds from old lp´s i had and bought without second thought the titles that were myfavorite , i haven´t heard one of them bought in 1993 ,i thought it would be a improvement but i was 50% wrong ,the drum kick and bass are ok the voice ,keyboards and six string guitars are changed at the sound and level heard, i even asked myself ,"did i liked this...? i must have been very high,...? it sounds horrible"but then i put a record to play and....oh!?

As previously stated, there is no control in this as an experiment. It is more than likely that your CD playback was less good that your vinyl playback, or that you simply preferred it. Either is fine, but that says nothing about the formats per se.

 

[Jasonovich]

I buy very few recording now as I mainly listen to classical music and I have one or more versions of everything I need. I couldn't be bothered with all the faff that does with vinyl and technically I know that vinyl comes with built in distortion (I'm not willing to argue about that. We did that to death here a decade or so ago!) so CDs are my preferred medium. My Morantz SA8500 does play SACD of course and I can convince myself that the SACD versions are better than the CD versions but it is slight and it might just be psychological - expectation bias. Moreover at 74 my ears aren't what they were.

Your ears may not be what it use to be but your mind is sharp as a pin 😊

 

[Rui]

Most of mine came from Amazon...

mine come from ebay ,discogs and old stores that closed and before this plague started when it was just a spread desease of using records again i went to some stores that had thousdands of titles stored untill early 90´s

 

[Jasonovich]

On a positive note for the health and longevity of the community, you have attracted almost as many comments as votes!

And no mention of CABLES in the production of this thread. It will nevertheless attract the partisans who sit on either side of the camp and yet, we see moderation of views who appreciate the benefits of both mediums. It's kind of odd that it is still relevant today, where most kids (and old Uns!) are streaming their music.
I still have fair collection of physical medium (CD only)
God only knows what happened to my 100+ vinyl albums in my mum's garage (Dave it was you, in-nit! ).
If I still had them, I'll probably have invested in a good solid TT to play them at breakfast, how I miss the snap crackle and PoP .

I understand the nostalgia associated with these two formats, especially vinyl but downloading my music from a high quality digital source, is the way forward for me, streaming not so much.

 

[Fandango Andy]

And no mention of CABLES

🤣🤣🤣

 

[Stuart83]

I must admit that I use all formats from CD, vinyl, Streaming, DAB and even awful tapes from an aging aiwa 3 head machine and I prefer CD to all of them.

But of course it isn't as simple as that.
I generally use streaming to find new content then purchase the CD for peanuts for the better quality IMO.
I also like the physical media collecting side of things.

We've all been along the format wars before most agreeing CD is still king because of the many variables.
I do still for some strange reason purchase some favourite music, mainly classical on record and even keep them separate from my 1000s of hard tekno etc DJ records.

I can only assume it's because I consider records subconsciously through media and my old dad to be better despite my findings or because of djaying both professionally and as a hobby for many years love the tactile involvement.

I've always stuck with technics 1200s (well before the price hike) but have had all kinds over the yrs with more carts than a shopping center.

Once I went over to CD decks I immediately missed the spinning of records in my hands before practically slamming them onto the deck whilst nodding my head.
I missed the tactility and 😲 the pops and crackles at the beginning.
(I even sampled and looped the pops into a mix once)

Then came the numbness of digital mixing with the anyone can do it approach.
The total abandonment of needed skill caused me to go straight back to records.

I'm going off topic but records have become more than just a source of music to me but not to my ears as good as CD.

There's too many obvious reasons on and off paper for this to mention.

Suffice to say what I'm getting at is it isn't just about the sound quality for me after a good quality sound is achieved.
(I can't stand bad quality recordings regardless of source )

It's about the holistic way it brings joy.

From thumbing through records on a day out and at home, to sliding a CD into the tray then listening to a better quality IMO recording whilst reading through the cover and looking at the artwork.
To the convenience of skipping through garbage to find gems whilst streaming to purchase physically.

Each has its place for different reasons.

 

[Rui]

As previously stated, there is no control in this as an experiment. It is more than likely that your CD playback was less good that your vinyl playback, or that you simply preferred it. Either is fine, but that says nothing about the formats per se.

i did bought many cds after 1993 ,till then i had only 7 cds but that´s when i had a better cd player and also new bought system ,what i noticed first was that old albums that i had bought in cd ,thinking it would a improvement they sounded very bad ,most of them i never palyed more than track or two, only by having a lot of Lp´s bought cheaper and imported from the U.S. and England i noticed that in direct listening the worst source was the cd as it sounded steríl or like a cassette recorded in a very cheap cassette deck but working at 100%, the lack of kind of 3d sound or what people call warm or deep ,normally after hours of listening to music all sources are warm ,it´s like after having many litle but good sound speakers till 100watts , real ones, i can say that big boxes for many reasons are always better even in lçess good original recordings they sound better in big speakers than in tiny ones, what i also found is that sensivety had been decresaed through the years , in the past or early 90´s top early 70´s speakers were above 90Db´s now mostly are 89 ,there are better but not that much

 

[Cricketbat70]

Most of mine came from Amazon...

Saw a couple of Hybrid SACD on eBay last night. A copy of DSOTM that was suspiciously cheap but it was from music magpie. Another copy of DSOTM that was triple the price and then some rarities in the £60 bracket. I am still tempted to buy a used Sony Blu-ray that can play SACD only 20 years late to the party.... again.

 

[Rui]

I must admit that I use all formats from CD, vinyl, Streaming, DAB and even awful tapes from an aging aiwa 3 head machine and I prefer CD to all of them.

But of course it isn't as simple as that.
I generally use streaming to find new content then purchase the CD for peanuts for the better quality IMO.
I also like the physical media collecting side of things.

We've all been along the format wars before most agreeing CD is still king because of the many variables.
I do still for some strange reason purchase some favourite music, mainly classical on record and even keep them separate from my 1000s of hard tekno etc DJ records.

I can only assume it's because I consider records subconsciously through media and my old dad to be better despite my findings or because of djaying both professionally and as a hobby for many years love the tactile involvement.

I've always stuck with technics 1200s (well before the price hike) but have had all kinds over the yrs with more carts than a shopping center.

Once I went over to CD decks I immediately missed the spinning of records in my hands before practically slamming them onto the deck whilst nodding my head.
I missed the tactility and 😲 the pops and crackles at the beginning.
(I even sampled and looped the pops into a mix once)

Then came the numbness of digital mixing with the anyone can do it approach.
The total abandonment of needed skill caused me to go straight back to records.

I'm going off topic but records have become more than just a source of music to me but not to my ears as good as CD.

There's too many obvious reasons on and off paper for this to mention.

Suffice to say what I'm getting at is it isn't just about the sound quality for me after a good quality sound is achieved.
(I can't stand bad quality recordings regardless of source )

It's about the holistic way it brings joy.

From thumbing through records on a day out and at home, to sliding a CD into the tray then listening to a better quality IMO recording whilst reading through the cover and looking at the artwork.
To the convenience of skipping through garbage to find gems whilst streaming to purchase physically.

Each has its place for different reasons.

i agree with you till a certain point but vinyl wasn´t like a fashion to say it was better , at the start i continued to buy albums because cds were doble the price but i noticed after 93 when i start to buy more cds that records sounded real better ,

the first thing i notice were the guitars being strange in sound while in a album in vinyl it sounds like a guitar played as we hear it, many friends of mine gave me their records and turntables ,i have 28 of them and none is bad and when people stoped recording cassettes , i had 52 cassette decks ,now i have more as my fathers equipment is now all mine

as in a blind test i made to several friends ,they always choose the cassette but one choose the cd and after he told me that the cd choice was because it sounded better and he knew it was a cassette,

decks do need maintenace or they would stoop working at 100% ,the change of diferent cassette brands and time ,like C60 or C90 will make a huge diference to the sound of the deck , when new ,

and i used to laugh at older guys that had nakamichi good decks and only recorded 60 minuts cassettes from Maxell and in the 90´s TDK, and when they found TDK AR 50 minuts they looked very happy like the lottery had been won by them, this talking about the 680ZX or the 700ZXL that i bought them to,

my father was a hi-fi freak and he always bought what he thought it was better the main reason why i have all nakamichi decks top models since 1974, the last was a DR-10 in gold that it´s still closed in the box, all were sent to england where my sister lives to be repaired by a old nakamichi technician ,the reason why they work perfect today,

Pioneer always made them better but people ,even in videos complain about pioneer top model decks have too much dynamics and more treble than bass and when they record a casettte i noticed in the video that decks with calibration in their heads it were like in defeat position in the knobs of calibration but there is no defeat,

if you recorded there any cassette it´s calibrated perfectelly to a TDK MA-XG type IV but you´re using a TDK SF or SA so it sounds strange and filled with highs ,this because the MA-XG is their standart cassette,

so they show like if they were experts on cassette decks ,have good and old expensive models but never opened a manual or try to learn how they work, and millions say", this is much better than the other more cheap and built with the cheapest plastic " or " OH! we wouldn´t knew that if you didn´t made this so interesting video"

in reality they are showing how to never record a cassette and pioneer´s are flat recorders don´t coloured the sound as in older decks with two heads only, and Nakamichi as showed before in mid to late 90´s in hi-fi magazines are far from being the best ,this because of the Dragon that was far from good decks quality and didn´t work with perfect tuned mechanism at the end of one month and they would stop worlking much sooner or decades before others,

my first Dragon i bought it only because i had not enough money to buy a TEAC Z-7000 or Z-5000 as the AKAI deck with GX higher reference(maybe GX-9) is also much better but in the 80´s they built them cheap but always better than a nakamichi,

i was young and went Dragon,all released under Dragon name i bought it and in 94 when the Dragon was still sold , i bought other as they told me it had been improved but more of the same.

Nakamichi decks ,they are good without a doubt but they stop working due to the cheapest materials they built them while a pioneer works since 1976 with only regualr maintence including belts change

 

[Rodolfo]

How weird is that that's unfortunate!
There are other models this seller is selling, found something even cheaper.
View attachment 6565

I have the excellent Sony BDP-S580 blu-ray player, which also plays SACDs, along with 4K --as does the BDP-X800, which I returned for some reason. Amazon.com is selling both today for twice what I paid 12 years ago.

​

 

[Rui]

And no mention of CABLES in the production of this thread. It will nevertheless attract the partisans who sit on either side of the camp and yet, we see moderation of views who appreciate the benefits of both mediums. It's kind of odd that it is still relevant today, where most kids (and old Uns!) are streaming their music.
I still have fair collection of physical medium (CD only)
God only knows what happened to my 100+ vinyl albums in my mum's garage (Dave it was you, in-nit! ).
If I still had them, I'll probably have invested in a good solid TT to play them at breakfast, how I miss the snap crackle and PoP .

I understand the nostalgia associated with these two formats, especially vinyl but downloading my music from a high quality digital source, is the way forward for me, streaming not so much.

all is true but my 60´s records, some even older but not for diamond tip stylus have no noise if one uses it like it was explained .Now, no explanation but there are ways to avoid cracks and poP,the way of using them and the way to store them , not expensive.
as i have a friend who bought a ES system(mini) and after a few monthes he tells me that the cds only work when new after a month it´s impossible.

So , i went there and started to join covers and cds who were a bit spread by the whole house and noticed that some cds were soiled with grease and liquor that when it dry´s looks like sugar ,i cleaned them all in the kitchen and after being dried ,all played again , he wanted to kiss me but i run as his mouth was glowing all around, maybe because he eats and never cleans himself,

later that year he was drinking beer in a free concerts party and while drinking it ,at the same time he was brushing his teeth with a automatic brush from Braun and toothpaste, so not all saw the cd as an improvement, i would laugh but it´s sad and he was a smart guy not smart like the car but bright in his projects, he was a great drummer but in all bands he played after maybe a week all wanted him gone, and he has a high degree in psicology , it seems he can´t aply his knowledge to himself

 

[Jasonovich]

I have the excellent Sony BDP-S580 blu-ray player, which also plays SACDs, along with 4K --as does the BDP-X800, which I returned for some reason. Amazon.com is selling both today for twice what I paid 12 years ago.

​

It's really outrageous how costs have gone up and Amazon in particular are really milking it. I guess, if somebody is going to upgrade their existing CD player, probably makes sense to buy one that has SACD compatibility.

The cheapest I've seen on Amazon is the SONY BDP-S6700 2K/4K Lecteur Multi Zone Region Code Free Blu Ray 2D/3D - WI-FI - DVD - SACD- CD Player £182..
It's weird, also on Amazon, you can get Panasonic DP-UB154EB-K 4K Ultra HD Blu-Ray Player with HDR10 for only £159 In addition to the conventional WAV/FLAC/MP3/AAC/WMA/AIFF formats, it plays DSD (2.86 MHz/5.6MHz/11.2MHz) via the USB but no SACD, I suspect Panasonic did not want to pay the licence fees to Sony.

​

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