Vinyl compared to CD . . .

[The_Lhc]

Hey Chebby, and you recon the CD v vinyl debate is not so big . . . hackles rise, on this site, and this was not a yar, boo thread, just a personal assessment of the same recording on my basic equipment via two different media.

That wasn't what made any "hackles rise", it's your insistance that there IS a huge divide between the two camps when there simply isn't, not on this forum at any rate, there's many people here who enjoy both vinyl and digital reproduction (myself included), so you're far from unique in the respect.

 

[Charlie Jefferson]

Hey Chebby, and you recon the CD v vinyl debate is not so big . . . hackles rise, on this site, and this was not a yar, boo thread, just a personal assessment of the same recording on my basic equipment via two different media.

That wasn't what made any "hackles rise", it's your insistance that there IS a huge divide between the two camps when there simply isn't, not on this forum at any rate, there's many people here who enjoy both vinyl and digital reproduction (myself included), so you're far from unique in the respect.

Good point Lhc, I use both formats and post in both sections too.

Overall, I prefer vinyl as previously stated, but ultimately, of course, it's always about the actual music.

That said, I think CJSF was just enthusing about his slight preference for the Plant/Krauss vinyl over the Plant/Krauss CD.

 

[Frank Harvey]

Perhaps it's the distortion aspect inherent in vinyl that makes the underlying sound so appealing. The view that the "warmth" that people feel as being unique to vinyl (or "soul", "body", "depth", whatever) and the "coldness" of digital as some see it, is off the pace these days I think. Perhaps early CD players reflected this, but today, that simply doesn't bear out as so many manufacturers deliver hardware that is as far away from the cold/harsh characteristic most talk of as you can get.

This is something else I've said before, and I've tried this in more than one location, but if if you have a CD based system playing on your shop floor, it tends to go unnoticed by browsers. But have a vinyl based system playing, and people notice it. And that's regardless of price, so it could even be a budget system, nothing stupidly expensive.

This is something I would have to try again, but I remember doing a CD vs vinyl demo for someone in the early/mid 90's, two actually - one was a Pioneer PL12D vs a Meridian 206 (about £40 vs £1,000!), where we both agreed the PL12D sounded more like music than the excellent sounding 206, and also a higher end comparison with a turntable costing several thousand against a similarly priced CD player. Usually, people will say that vinyl has an unnatural, excessive warmth and a bit of a bloated bass, but I found the opposite. It was the CD player that sounded wrong, and the turntable, in comparison, sound much more even and natural, almost like comparing a sealed and ported cabinet speaker. And this was back in the decade that probably produced some of the finest CD players that there ever will be.

There will never be any winners in the CD/vinyl debate, only those who know in their own mind which is superior when it comes to a listening experience.

 

[chebby]

Hey Chebby, and you recon the CD v vinyl debate is not so big . . .

It really isn't.

I don't recall it ever being a subject of debate in any place I have ever worked. Nor have I ever heard it being discussed in any pub or cafe, nor amongst any relatives or friends. (One of my friends who is particularly into hifi has a Rega P3-24 and enjoys digital equally.)

I have never overheard this debate in the street.

In the last 30 years I only remember a handful of articles in national newspapers touching on the subject (hardly a debate) and one or two very brief/silly mentions on television programmes.

If there is still any debate at all over vinyl vs cd then it is almost wholly confined to online hifi fora - like this one - where (as the_Lhc rightly observes) it is only between a few of the more active members. (Many of those post in the other hifi fora too.)

Even back in the 1980s the vinyl vs CD debate was contained within the letters pages of hifi magazines (and some articles) which had miniscule circulation compared to anything you'd find being read by the rest of the public.

 

[CJSF]

Overall, I prefer vinyl as previously stated, but ultimately, of course, it's always about the actual music. That said, I think CJSF was just enthusing about his slight preference for the Plant/Krauss vinyl over the Plant/Krauss CD.

This is exactly the point, Charles . . . I liked the Raising Sand CD, I also like the vinyl, a quote from my starting post: 'Which ever way, on which ever medium, its a superb recording'

As for your comments Lhc, 'insistence . . . ' where on earth did you get that idea? I would suggest you have an over exposed CD nerve . . . more of an 'observation' that there is a differences, and that I like both.

I think feathers have flown because I used the wrong to title the tread, 'Vinyl compared to CD', sorry about that, but in my mind it was simply a 'comparison' between the same work on two different mediums that I thought was an interesting comparison . . . I'll be more careful in my choice of titles in future.

However, whichever way you cut it, like it or not . . . 'the debate does go on' . . . 8)

CJSF