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

[Friesiansam]

This is just about CD and vinyl, not other formats.

 

[Gray]

The question is what do we think is better - so I had to vote for CD.
I'm thinking more of the price of the discs, the durability and the simplicity.
Sound quality differences / preferences are being discussed in other threads.

 

[My2Cents]

Hard to say. It's horses for courses.
Both formats possibly surpassed by a Studer A80 playing the original master tape?
If pre recorded tapes were available at reasonable prices (not $300-$600... and with a very limited choice of material available)! I would be sorely tempted to order a refurbished Revox B77 II directly from Revox ($8,500 and a waiting list).
I feel that it would be better value than a $30,000 Linn Klimax LP12?

 

[Revolutions]

The question is what do we think is better - so I had to vote for CD.
I'm thinking more of the price of the discs, the durability and the simplicity.

This. And ease of storage.

I prefer listening to vinyl though.

 

[My2Cents]

Why is streaming not a choice?
It gives me 100 million tracks to choose from in higher quality than my system will ever be capable of reproducing.
When I first walked into Tower records in Piccadilly Circus in 1990 I was blown away... today, I basically have access to almost every album that a store like that contained for $12 a month! (and no bad pressings to return and no scratches, pops or clicks).
Searching Qobuz I get to find music (new and old) that I never would if I was to just keep listening to the same old music in a personal 'collection'.
For every album that many artists/bands produce there is usually only 3 or 4 decent tracks on it anyway!
By the time they get to their 3rd album they are 'strung out from the road' and trying to come up with new material for a 3rd and 4th album so that they can comply with their record companies contract.
So we get an album of songs about the hardships of the road/missing friends and family/relationship breakups due to being a 'star' etc. and the 4th is either a 'greatest hits' or a live album LOL

 

[jjbomber]

Hard to say. It's horses for courses.
Both formats possibly surpassed by a Studer A80 playing the original master tape?
If pre recorded tapes were available at reasonable prices (not $300-$600... and with a very limited choice of material available)! I would be sorely tempted to order a refurbished Revox B77 II directly from Revox ($8,500 and a waiting list).
I feel that it would be better value than a $30,000 Linn Klimax LP12?

Was the question too difficult for you to understand?

 

[Friesiansam]

Why is streaming not a choice?

Because that is not what I am asking. It was a simple question, in response to something another member said in a thread yesterday.

 

[abacus]

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

 

[DCarmi]

I find this difficult to answer. There are some CDs I have that are so over-recorded that I find some difficult to listen to and I seek out a vinyl versions.

For classical music, I prefer CD, as they are produced at "proper" levels. For modern contemporary releases (including some re-masters), I'd generally prefer vinyl as I am technically able to use a volume control.

Basically all my recent new classical music purchases have been CD and most new contemporary purchases are on vinyl.

 

[Cricketbat70]

This. And ease of storage.

I prefer listening to vinyl though.

Like many members in the forum I have both but my CD collection consists of a few hundred CD's compared to less than a hundred vinyl.

In addition to your reasons for picking CD. As I have said in another thread a few months ago, I have the issue of living in a Victorian terraced house with suspended wooden floors if I walk too near my hifi rack then the tone arm on my RP3 skips.
In my last house I had all my hifi gear mounted on individual shelves with heavy duty wall brackets. I swapped to a rack because I believed a rack would be better I have since read that the way I had it is better.

I'm currently in the process of trying to convince Rach to let me make shelves again😂

 

[Jasonovich]

I appreciate this is about ones personal preference of choice, either; CD or Vinyl.
It would be interesting to hear also, in addition to the Poll, how often they purchase Vinyl/CD, once a month, once a year?

20 years ago, I would buy 3-5 CD albums each month, these days, it's all downloads, mostly high resolution DSD format, which is my preferred medium. Though many would argue it's no better than hi-res PCM, the debate has opened even within the digital realm, sort of reminds of the aged old antagonism between the CD camp and the Vinyl camp. I think this tribalism is a facet of modern society.

 

[DougK1]

I've voted both as vinyl done well can sound spectacular. Regularly buy used CDs but haven't bought any LPs in years. My LP collection is reserved for favourite artists, most of it is duplicated on CD, and SACD if available.

 

[Cricketbat70]

I've voted both as vinyl done well can sound spectacular. Regularly buy used CDs but haven't bought any LPs in years. My LP collection is reserved for favourite artists, most of it is duplicated on CD, and SACD if available.

Trying to find out whether my son's PS3 will play SACD I know some models could and a Blu-ray player I gave away could. I haven't got any SACD's but so tempted just to try a few.

 

[Jasonovich]

Trying to find out whether my son's PS3 will play SACD I know some models could and a Blu-ray player I gave away could. I haven't got any SACD's but so tempted just to try a few.

I believe if I'm not mistaken, only the first generation of the PS3 (with 60GB) supports SACD. You have to connect it via HDMI to a Receiver that can handle Multichannel-PCM, this is the format the PS3 converts the DSD-Stream of the SACD. Also, your console won't have a display which is not ideal, if you need to view the track.

It might be worth buying second hand or refurbish, I've just had a quick look at eBay and I can see some good deals, some even come with warranties as per below

 

[Cricketbat70]

I believe if I'm not mistaken, only the first generation of the PS3 (with 60GB) supports SACD. You have to connect it via HDMI to a Receiver that can handle Multichannel-PCM, this is the format the PS3 converts the DSD-Stream of the SACD. Also, your console won't have a display which is not ideal, if you need to view the track.

It might be worth buying second hand or refurbish, I've just had a quick look at eBay and I can see some good deals, some even come with warranties as per below

I had the BDPS370. It was only after I had given it away that I found out it could play SACD.

 

[Rui]

i think vinyl sounds better as the compact discs mainly till the 2000´s all sounded better and life of it ,it´s far superior than a cd ,i have 15.000 reasons to say so, as also have 7.000 reasons to say that there are cds who sound great,

but if they sound great in cd , the vinyl version would sound even better, there are good reasons to not have vinyl records as it´s not the best format to listen in a beach with a portable player, but most of the album´s till the 2000´s were recorded in analog ,after i really don´t know

only the final work or format into the studio recording is passed into digital, and that´s when all is destroyd as the cd sound can´t be reproduced faithfully the analog recording made in a studio ,because of it´s limitations as a compact disc not being digital as digital evolved a lot since the 70´s when cds were created,

so direct sound Bla Bla Bla with a cd will never have 80% of the studio work, with a record it will sound the closest possible, even pre-recoded cassettes can top easilly the cd but rare to happen, but a regular thing,

as i have 7 pre-recorded cassettes in many thousnads i recorded and some do sound good ,can give the example of dream of the blue turtles by Sting or the first album from the Who without their incredible drummer.

cds are digital so the sound in a studio it´s very good but also very expensive equipment make it sound good but the idea of playing in direct as a fashion in late 80´s is good for very good speakers and amplifiers who most of the people don´t have at home,

and when converted to digital compact disc all levels and equalizations are changed in the recording made in studio, each track recorded in studio is changed when mixed or putted into diferent levels as it was done by a producer, also equalized , the more close to it today available is vinyl .

I can give a example that i bought a entire new system in the 90´s and before spending money on a SONY Esprit series as i had bought in 82 or 81 a new system by Sony ESprit series and was amazing in sound.

i had alreaddy a nakamichi system from late 80´s who gave me early problems that my father insisted on spending a lot of money on this told to be the best brand in cassette decks who aren´t and far from it,

when the stasis power amplifier was released i had to had it ,except the speakers who were JBL giant studio monitors and i bought a real good cd player either than the nakamichi one that looked cheap but cost a lot of money, i went for the marantz top end model that was built by philips and it was really good,

all of this to say ,that when hearing music i was playing cds but i changed to a nakamichi turntable and the sound become dynamic the guitars sounded like guitars as all other instruments and seemed more expanded in the room while played and through the speakers .

A cassette i recorded from a cd in the CR-7a cassette deck, also sounded better this in direct ,while the cds and i experimented a lot of them from diferent styles of music and diferent kinds of production,

two of the Lp´s i played were from The The , the soul mining and Infected that are diferent works and in vinyl how good they sounded but their cd versions were kind of narrower not bad but like a well recorded cassette in a cheap but nice cassette deck, like the cheaper deck Denon had in mid 80´s

and i understand why people like cds , but good sound i wouldn´t expect it , any record sounded better as in real instruments sound not a bit of confused badly mixed and bad sounding instruments as they do not sound in reality, is the same of me having fun when younger at the beach with a portable radio cassette player ,it sounds fine.

That´s why untill they don´t release a digital format, that already it exists since the 80´s for home use proving that the first digital format developed in the 70´s it´s a bit outdated as the talk about DAC DAC,

it´s boring and ridiculous, buy a equalizer and use the provided tone controls on the amplifiers as they are there to correct somethings

about cd sounding better ,since 2018 i´ve been testing at a shop from a friend of mine ,a lot of new turntables that people say they sound really good and the cartridges refered ,i never heard so bad sounding cartridges,

 

[Dave_]

Why is streaming not a choice?
It gives me 100 million tracks to choose from in higher quality than my system will ever be capable of reproducing.

And beyond the capabilities of human hearing...

 

[Jasonovich]

I had the BDPS370. It was only after I had given it away that I found out it could play SACD.

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

 

[Gray]

vinyl done well can sound spectacular.

...and soundwise, very hard to distinguish from CD.
(When using vinyl that's completely free of clicks and pops).

 

[GSV Ethics Gradient]

(When using vinyl that's completely free of clicks and pops).

Which in my experience never happened - though I freely admit that was with less-than-stellar gear many years ago.

For me, the longevity and ability to stop/start/pause/go-back-to-start-of-track-when-interrupted sealed the deal. Can't imagine having to start a track, then go back to my seat and find it was already playing.

But each to their own.

 

[Jasonovich]

Just playing the devil's advocate and oh God, I can't recall the last time I listened to vinyl.

I don't know if your ears can detect or it's even noticeable, but when the arm moves closer to the inner circle, there's more compression within the grove and to offset the distortion of the shorter cycle, I believe the low frequencies are trimmed off in the recording studios that is why it can never match the dynamic range of CD.
To counter this, the colouration adds euphony to the listening experience, I suppose more akin to listening to the velvety texture of a good tube amp, clinical sounding CD's fail in this regard, not unless the studios do some weird stuff and add white noise to enhance the ambience.

 

[Jasonovich]

Which in my experience never happened - though I freely admit that was with less-than-stellar gear many years ago.

For me, the longevity and ability to stop/start/pause/go-back-to-start-of-track-when-interrupted sealed the deal. Can't imagine having to start a track, then go back to my seat and find it was already playing.

But each to their own.

Yeah I hear you, I can't be bothered with getting up from the sofa to flip over the vinyl than going back to the sofa every 20 minutes.

 

[DougK1]

Trying to find out whether my son's PS3 will play SACD I know some models could and a Blu-ray player I gave away could. I haven't got any SACD's but so tempted just to try a few.

I have been fortunate with my players, my current and previous player could both play SACD so it was a no brainer not to buy some discs. It's a very niche product and I think most of mine came from Japan.

 

[Cricketbat70]

...and soundwise, very hard to distinguish from CD.
(When using vinyl that's completely free of clicks and pops).

I'll have to let you know how DSOTM collectors edition double album, on single sided clear vinyl sounds. It arrived last Friday early 31st anniversary present from Rach.

 

[manicm]

...and soundwise, very hard to distinguish from CD.
(When using vinyl that's completely free of clicks and pops).

Not so sure about that. Last time I heard vinyl was 10 years ago admittedly, and that too was after a very long time. And the thing that immediately struck me was its fluidity. Very few digital systems sound like that. Maybe SACD, but I've never heard those.

Turntables may approach the clarity of CD, if that's what you mean. But digital, be it streaming or CD, still lacks that liquid like quality, where the sound just flows.

And that I can only put down to electronics - as those bits have to be converted, requiring processing etc.