Are records really any better than CDs?

[8ball]

Or rewind it with a pencil

 

[gentlegreen]

I get the point about remastered stuff, I notice that too.

But what a bout a new band new recording, would it sound better on vinyl? Given I presume the recording techniques would more likely to be geared towards a CD sound?

i.e. is it worth switching back?

good gawd

For home use vinyl is obsolete, CDs are obsolescent, CD players are good enough for all but those with "golden ears" who live in the country.

most of the population think 128K MP3s are HIFI

 

[ruffneck23]

analogy time

records = mushrooms : a warmer fuzzier feeling
cd = LSD: a clinical colder feeling

i know what i prefer

 

[kained&able]

im strictly digital. I don't dj and have never owned anything on vinyal.

cds take up less space get less bollcoksed about and you dopn't get all the hisses pop and cracks so its nearer to what the artists/producers actully want you to hear.

oh and its all about dvd cases to skin up on. Is there anyone who claims video is better then dvd out of intrest?


dave

 

[Dubversion]

you dopn't get all the hisses pop and cracks so its nearer to what the artists/producers actully want you to hear.

that's nonsense. artists / producers like Steve Albini and Neil Young far prefer vinyl - actively so in Albini's case, who utterly disdains digital for recording and releases.


I

is there anyone who claims video is better then dvd out of intrest?

an irrelevant comparison. the differences between vinyl and CD are not comparable to those between tape and DVD, for any number of reasons

 

[gentlegreen]

analogy time

records = mushrooms : a warmer fuzzier feeling
cd = LSD: a clinical colder feeling

i know what i prefer

tone controls

(alternatively wait till you're my age and everything will start sounding warm and fuzzy )

Whichever CD player you have, keeep it switched on - they can sound rough when cold.

FWIW my Naim CD player sounds very nice - through my 40 year old Leak valve amp and 30 year old Quad speakers.

... though so much of what I listen to these days is dance music streaming out of my soundcard at 128K ... and a lot of the "instruments" were sampled at low bitrates in any case .....

King Tubby sounds excellent on CD - if I want surface noise I could add it myself

 

[gentlegreen]

oh and its all about dvd cases to skin up on. Is there anyone who claims video is better then dvd out of intrest?


dave

There doubtless will be someone - though I have to say digital TV - notably cable can look a bit "airbrushed" on occaision

 

[8ball]

Analogue film is certainly better than DVD by a mile.

VHS video was always a poor choice even of magnetic video cassette that we were saddled with through the vagaries of movie licensing rather than any functional concern.

Wandering off topic now . . .

 

[kained&able]

that's nonsense. artists / producers like Steve Albini and Neil Young far prefer vinyl - actively so in Albini's case, who utterly disdains digital for recording and releases.

umm fair enough, but im almost certain i could rattle a very large list of producers who use all digital. Albanni likes his anologue effects and valve amps as well and stuff the technophobe.

End of the day its probbaley just a matter of taste, i don't own a recored player so have never fell in love with the sound of vinyl. Your very very very old and so like your vinyl.


dave

 

[Orang Utan]

Hisses, pops and cracks are

 

[grosun]

Hisses, pops and cracks are

not on my dodgy jamaican pressing of "night nurse", they're not. On some other records tho', they sound great.

 

[Kaka Tim]

I .. have never owned anything on vinyl.

shakes head in despair at these younguns


As many have pointed out - its not the audible pops and crackles - its the harmonics and sub sonic stuff that makes vinyl 'warmer'.

Also records sound best on the stuff they were designed to played on. So old mono vinyl sounds fuckin top on the big mono valve stuff of the time - i.e play Phil Spector or early motown on a big old valve juke box and it sounds fucking boomtastic.

 

[magneze]

CDs are great for convenience, but records just sound better. There's a warmth that you just don't get. In theory the frequencies stripped off aren't audible to humans - but if this is true then why do they sound different?! It's this "feeling" that makes the difference. Bass in particular seems to sound better from vinyl.

They also feel nice when you stroke them lovingly.

 

[8ball]

I wonder how many people here would be able to tell CD from vinyl on a decent system in a blind test.

Obviously we won't be able to test this out - I've seen it done with musos (sometimes different kinds of musos, reviewers, musicians, music techs etc.). on the telly and the results have always been interesting.

I've done the blind test with valve and transistor amps and people seem to be picking up on price of equipment more so than type.

 

[atomik]

Its not a matter of who knows better than who. Unless you're suggesting that key producers and DJs have some kind of magical enhanced hearing gained throught their superior knowledge of music?

They're probably all tone-deaf from listening to too much loud music

 

[Orang Utan]

Then they'd just be deaf, foo'

 

[atomik]

I was just being flippant, foo'

 

[hiccup]

What's foo got to do (got to do) with it?

 

[gentlegreen]

What's foo got to do (got to do) with it?

wasn't it one of his catchphrases ?

 

[hiccup]

wasn't it one of his catchphrases ?

Nah, that was:

"I ain't getting on no plane, foo".

She was notorious for foisting jet travel on vietnam vets.

 

[Dubversion]

one of my exes used to work for a hi-fi magazine (Hi Fi World, Hi Fi Choice, one of those) so i used to get free issues (and the odd bit of audiophile speaker cable).

fucking astonishing. you'd get 'problem' letters like

Dear Sirs

I have buried my speakers in 50ft thick concrete in my basement, which is lead shielded and utterly sound proof. My valve amp cost me 11 million pounds, my turntable - which has no moving parts to distort the sound and is operated using mindwaves only - slightly less, and my cables are made of polar bear veins. And yet my 1972 David Cassidy greatest hits album still sounds shit. Can you help?

 

[atomik]

What was the answer?

"Develop some fucking taste?"