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Re: CD vs. Vinyl

24.67.132.226

Posted by cbob on February 6, 2001 at 16:05:07

In Reply to: Need help w/ arguement: CD vs. Vinyl posted by imoer30 on February 6, 2001 at 11:46:56:

As has been said elsewhere in this thread (and likely others), this is the ultimate no-win argument.

To make it perfectly clear, I'm absolutely an analog and tube fan. In its current (available) form commercial digital cannot come close to the musicality of analog. As distasteful as I find the use of analogies in such discussions, it's rather like the SET vs PP amplifier design - if you listen with an open mind, the difference should be clearly evident. If you can't (or won't) hear it, then there's no point in arguing about it.

One more analogy - for the non-vegetarians - filet mignon, or ground beef - which would be the digital?

All I can say is that from my own experience, listen to the same title on both formats. For example, for those fans of Patricia Barber, try Modern Cool or Cafe Blue on the 180g vinyl vs the CD and listen for the bloom of the cymbals, the resonance of body the double bass when the strings are aggressively slapped, and the palpable body and image location of her voice.
Then carefully read the liner notes - these albums were recorded to analog masters. According to Michael Friedman of Premonition Records, all Ms Barber's vocal tracks (except obviously the "Wood" song) are recorded in a single take with no digital jiggery.
If you have to try to explain why the vinyl sounds more real, then you'll never get it. Just listen to the music.

There are tons of examples of CDs that have deplorable sound. Those of us who didn't jump blindly on the digital bandwagon at the beginning will possibly remember the purchase of our first few "replacements"- CD's bought for us to hear for the first time again the magic missing from vinyl copies of our favorites that we were told must be worn out after hundreds of playings. How many of those first CD's sounded screechy, thin, white, but yes very quiet.
Could it be that in their haste to reissue these titles (and recover the investment in new technology) the record companies failed to correctly remaster from the original flat master tapes.

Somewhere in my journeys I've read that the weakest link in our playback system is a part over which we have no control - the nuts behind the knobs/sliders in the recording studios (ie recording engineers).
Before we jump all over them, let's not forget that they are generally acceding to the demands of the marketing or accounting divisions who are telling them what the public wants (or will put up with)

This topic could be debated forever, and with the monumental egos on tap at this forum, disintegrate to a flame contest - all to no final conclusion. Just think of all the music you could have been otherwise enjoying.

Regardless of format, there are only 2 kinds of music: that which I enjoy(today), and the rest of it - and my tastes and sensibilities have changed over the past 35 years.

peace

chris

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