time after time...

[gbhsi1]

after time when I listen to vinyl it just sounds so much better than cd? I have listened to both at length & I can listen to vinyl for hours but I struggle to listen to cd's for long periods as it gets tiresome. I have always thought of scrapping cd all together but I just have too many cd's that I would not want to get rid of. Audiophile vinyl, like the ones I buy from Classic records (ie: audio affair) cost around £30 each....so it is three times more expensive than a cd...but I think it is worth it as the sounds so natural and just plain musical.

May vinyl never die!

 

[ear]

thats true.one doesn't get tired of listening to records.but keep the cds.I like hearing cds that I havent heard for quite a few years..seems a new discovery to me.

 

[Anonymous]

It's a funny one. When I slipped out the whole idea of personal music was changing with the advent of the CD. I always wish that I was around to witness the great bands of the sixties and the seventies but at the same time I'm loving the exponential curve today's technology is taking us on.

I've thought many a time about buying a record player, however these days it's a very hard consideration. I like to support local record shops (my friend owns one and he stopped selling records last year) but it's just not a workable business model, and on that note I'm out.

 

[Anonymous]

I think sometimes it depends on what cds you listen to, cds are so cheap you can get some for £1.99 and they are c__p, but when you buy vinyl you look around for the best copy you can afford and then praise it up as the best thing you have ever heard.

I think a lot of vinyl lovers love the whole idea of past times, which is not a bad thing, but lets not kid ourselfs everthing vinyl is great, i am 48 so a lot of my music is on vinyl, some good some bad, i also have cds some good some bad.

To sum up i think they both sound great, and they both can sound c__p.

 

[plastic penguin]

gbhsi1:after time when I listen to vinyl it just sounds so much better than cd? I have listened to both at length & I can listen to vinyl for hours but I struggle to listen to cd's for long periods as it gets tiresome. I have always thought of scrapping cd all together but I just have too many cd's that I would not want to get rid of. Audiophile vinyl, like the ones I buy from Classic records (ie: audio affair) cost around £30 each....so it is three times more expensive than a cd...but I think it is worth it as the sounds so natural and just plain musical. May vinyl never die!

I have no experience of "audiophile vinyl", but, yes, I agree in the main. If I put a record on and compare the same track on CD, CD's do sound a wee bit clearer and slightly more detailed, although they sound less natural than good old fashioned vinyl. There are exceptions, of course, when a CD has been remastered - as organic as records? me thinks not.

 

[Frank Harvey]

Any systems that use turntables from the likes of Rega's P2 and upwards will sound far more enjoyable than a CD based one. People are used to hearing CD now and have forgotten what vinyl sounds like. Many people complain that hi-fi doesn't sound as good as it used to - I'll tell you why - because systems no longer have a turntable! It completely transforms a system from a flat, harsh sounding one that's not even worth half it's askinprice to a three dimensional, organic sounding that people would whip out the credit card for if they actually heard it.

We've seen a huge resurgance in decks like the Gyrodec - 3 in a week a few weeks ago - not cheap turntables either. We're selling more of those than Project Debut and Genie turntables!

 

[jaxwired]

Super hi res digital music is just around the corner. I've got to think that will truly surpass vinyl in every way.

 

[Anonymous]

I picked up an old Systemdek IIX for 60 quid and it wipes the floor with my Arcam cdp in all areas.

Im listening to Kraftwerks 'Electric Cafe; and it sounds stunning. Far better than even the cd remasters IMO.Maybe the bottle and a half of Barolo have helped mind you!

 

[Frank Harvey]

jaxwired: Super hi res digital music is just around the corner. I've got to think that will truly surpass vinyl in every way.

Hmmmm, I'm not so sure. It may do from a technical point of view, but will it have that magic that vinyl has and CD lacks? Will it sound like music?

 

[Anonymous]

If a 36 year old piece of vinyl on a 26 year old turntable outperforms a brand new cd on a ten year old cdp then Im not convinced hi resaudio will be an improvement! It may well do though.!

 

[jaxwired]

Only tme will tell, but it seems to me (from my decidedly unexpert point of view) that the likely reason that vinyl sounds better than CD (to some people I might add), is that vinyl contains all the music. CD is music chopped up into millions of sample points. The theory was that the sample points are so close together that when reconfigured the resulting analog wave would be indistinguishable from the original. Seems to me that must be the culprit. We were wrong, it's not indistinguisable. Not enough sample points. Add a lot more sample points and it eventually will become something that is effectively identical to the oringal analog sound. Pure conjecture based on no scientific justification which is how I like to debate...

 

[Anonymous]

Thats my sort of debate!

Do you have

any links about hi rez audio as tbh ive not read a thing about it!

 

[jaxwired]

Well, I don't know much about it myself. I just know that I've read in a few hifi mags about music downloads available in 24 bit res. CD is 16 bit. I think Linn has stuff available right now. Also there's a site called HDTracks. I think you need a DAC with hi res capabilities...

And then there's always SACD and now Blu-Ray

 

[Anonymous]

Ill have to look into this. I know my usb soundcard can input 24 bit/48khz audio but i dont know about its output though. I might have to email alesis as i cant find anything online. Thanks!

 

[crusaderlord]

Having resurrected my Rega Planar 2 with an Ortofon Blue cartridge i have been getting very mixed results.

My CD's are on the whole more detailed and clearer which i do enjoy. My small selection of vinyl is very mixed in quality, many sound slightly muffled in the midrange compared to what i am used to and for a while i thought was i must have the set up slighly off.

Then i played Alison Moyet 'Alf' a 30p vinyl find and it sounded great in terms of its sound quality. A couple of new 180g Gary Numan vinyls do sound the business too.

So i suspect that it is simply a lot of vinyl i have just isnt recorded well, or at least i am so used to remastered CD that its hard to get back into vinyl.

 

[the record spot]

There's probably some truth in that; sadly a lot of remastered CD is bloody awful, as in the work done on it. The record companies think making them louder and crushed with compression is what the public want/need. Some of the early first generation CDs were straight transfers from the master tape, so you get this nice sounding disc. Somewhere along the line, as with hifi, we got suckered by the marketing guff that said we need to hear this bright and shiny new version which sounds tons better than the old one.

And somewhere along the line, we fell for it. Just listening to the original DJM issue of Elton's "Elton John" album, mastered by Nimbus, and it's just superb. It's up there with what SACD aimed for once upon a time.

 

[matthewpiano]

There are some excellent CD remasters about as well though. The EMI remasters of the first four Barclay James Harvest albums are excellent, as are the Strawbs and Moody Blues remasters. Recently some of the Steeleye Span albums were released in a remastered box set and they too were superbly done. In the case of all four groups the remasters significantly outshine the original CD releases.

 

[ESP2009]

I think that both formats suffer from the same inconsistencies. If only every album, be it on vinyl or CD format, came with the same high quality production. Sadly, there seems to be a wide variation in said quality. Although I readily admit that my experience is limited in the face of many who post on this forum, even I can express more than a little disappointment when listening to my CD collection and discovering that recordings I expected to sound great on my system are, well, just plain drab. I spin up Melody Gardot's 'My One and Only Thrill' and find myself captivated by the sound, yet the copy of Pink Floyd's 'The Wall' I have is nowhere near as satisfying. Different productions, sadly emphasised by a decent (at least to my mind) hifi. I can imagine that an even better system could conceivably just emphasise the disparity.

 

[gbhsi1]

ESP2009:I think that both formats suffer from the same inconsistencies. If only every album, be it on vinyl or CD format, came with the same high quality production. Sadly, there seems to be a wide variation in said quality. Although I readily admit that my experience is limited in the face of many who post on this forum, even I can express more than a little disappointment when listening to my CD collection and discovering that recordings I expected to sound great on my system are, well, just plain drab. I spin up Melody Gardot's 'My One and Only Thrill' and find myself captivated by the sound, yet the copy of Pink Floyd's 'The Wall' I have is nowhere near as satisfying. Different productions, sadly emphasised by a decent (at least to my mind) hifi. I can imagine that an even better system could conceivably just emphasise the disparity. I do agree that both have their faults (one being you have to get up to change the record...but that has nothing to do with the sound quality. Most, if not all 180gm, 200gm vinyl just sound amazing! no cd version can possibly compete, maybe SACD could give it a run for it's money...but unfortunately I have not heard SACD recording, so can't possibly comment. My experience with CD is that after a few listening sessions I get tired of listening to it, but listening to vinyl I could listen to it all day- surely that is how music should sound 🙂 Sure there are poor recordings on vinyl but I think they are easier to pick out than cd's...correct me if I am wrong. I like cd....but on the other hand...I like vinyl, but which one is better?? THERE IS ONLY ONE WAY TO FIND OUT!! FIIIIIIIIIIIGHT 🙂