Vinyl records or CD's? (page 2)

drwtsn32

KGB, no, I don't have it backwards. Most people would agree that CDs sound better, but if you took away the scratches that plague vinyl, it usually sounds "warmer" and "richer." You need a record in pristine condition and a high end turntable but vinyl can/does sound better than a CD to an audiophile.

CDs do not have higher resolution than vinyl. Vinyl is not digital and has basically "infinite" resolution.

CDs are superior to vinyl in many ways though: a very high signal-to-noise ratio, digital signal that doesn't degrade over time, error correction, etc.

DVD-Audio and Super Audio CDs are new formats that greatly increase the resolution of digital audio discs so that they sound basically as good as the best analog sources. I have heard that a 192khz sampling rate is enough to make digital sound as good as analog. (CDs have a 44.1khz sampling rate.... not enough.)

onacruse

Watson, that makes a lot of sense. There are mechanical harmonics that are "read" through the interplay of "needle and groove" that a CD (essentially nothing more than a musical form of optical character recognition software) can't duplicate. Rather like the sound of a "real" violin, or a Steinway.

Such is the nature of physical materials vs. digital/analog imitations.

Craig

KGB

drwtsn32,

Okay I could be wrong, I personally prefer the CD over LP but tell me this is there a music dvd or is it made better by playing a CD in a dvd. I ask this because I noticed that when I play my CD's in my dvd player they do sound way better than in my CD player. Are they now making a dvd music disc?

drwtsn32

There are mechanical harmonics that are "read" through the interplay of "needle and groove" that a CD (essentially nothing more than a musical form of optical character recognition software) can't duplicate.

onacruse: Yes, a CD would have difficulty reproducing the richness of some music. But digital CAN do it... it just needs a very high sampling rate.

Okay I could be wrong, I personally prefer the CD over LP but tell me this is there a music dvd or is it made better by playing a CD in a dvd. I ask this because I noticed that when I play my CD's in my dvd player they do sound way better than in my CD player. Are they now making a dvd music disc?

KGB: There is a simple reason CDs will sound better on a DVD player. DVD players have a higher quality DAC than a cheap CD player. The DAC converts the digital information into analog audio waveforms. A DVD player has needs a higher quality DAC than a CD player because it must support the higher bandwidth audio that DVDs contain. I used to have a cheap CD player ($100 or so) but I bypassed its DAC by using the optical output and connecting it to my receiver. The DAC in my receiver was better than the one in the CD player.

I have seen Super Audio CDs in stores but I have not seen any DVD Audio discs. (I think they're out though.) My DVD player won't do either DVD-A or SACD so I haven't experimented with either format yet.

onacruse

"needle and groove"..."sampling rate"

LOL, I can't believe that somebody has yet to make the obligatory comment about the suggestive nature of these terms.

maxwell

I own one 33 with some old jazz. It's at my parents house. I don't think their record player works now and I don't have one. But I'm sure my dad still has his substantial collection of 33's, 45's and even a few 78's and I listened to them plenty while growing up. He had a lot of R&B and soul from the 60's and some from the 70's. A few classical records. I suppose I haven't heard very many new pieces of vinyl. CD's have always sound more clear to many, probably because of the dust, scratches and degradation of the record. But that popping clicking sound of some old records is kind of nostalgic. I have some jazz CD's created from old records that couldn't be fully restored. The sound quality kind of contributes to the affect of taking you back.

teenyuck

I found a box (this weekend) with a whole bunch of albums from the 70's and 80's.....I need to scan/photo the covers or find them on amazon to sell on E-bay. Neither my husband nor I can figure out who purchased them. They are a mix of rock and some pop.

Overall, CD's sound better.

We threw out his old record player a few years ago....it still played, however we figured it was worthless...

drwtsn32

Yes, CDs usually sound much better than records. But that's because records are highly affected by dust, scratches, clicks, pops, etc.

Something to consider: most CDs are made (mastered) from analog sources.

The point is that analog audio (which includes vinyl records) can sound better than digital CDs. But in reality vinyl usually gets scracted and dusty so will sound worse in that respect. And no one is suggesting people throw away CDs and go back to vinyl!

amac

My record collection rivals my CD collection and i have 4 different turntables, but only one that is used for listening to on my main system. My equipment is good enough that a good clean record is comparable to a CD in that it may lack some of the clarity due to surface noise, but it has a definite warmth to it that the CD doesn't. So I tend to go back and forward on what I listen to. I happen to have a lot of records that you cannot buy on CD so I tend to listen to records more at home since I can listen to CDs in my car and at work.

Whether or not I buy something on vinyl or CD depends on where I will mostly likely listen to it at. For instance, Fischerspooner is something I prefer listening to while I am driving, so I bought it on CD (but also buy their 12"s on vinyl) but a repro of the Kinks "Something Else..." came out on 180 gm vinyl, so I prefer to have that over a CD and listen to it in my home.

berten

To widen the discussion a bit: Tube amps or Transistor amps?

Vinyl records or CD's?

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