[skaloumbakas]

Hi all,

Maybe this is not exactly a music review, since it involves comparisson between 2 source formats of various types of Music, but it is not exactly an audio... paper either. Never the less, the music I am referring to is very interesting, no matter if you have it recorded on vinyl or on an aluminum disc...

The purpose of doing this is to face this old analogue vs.digital "war", from the point of the final acoustical experience and pleasure, listening to both formats - which is what matters anyway - and not from a technical point of view. We've had enough of this...

Please visit: http://aca.gr/rec05_skal1.htm

I wonder if members of these forums have the same experience with me or the oposite...

Sorry to trouble you...

[Carlman]

I've been collecting vinyl copies of cd's for the past decade or 2.. and only have a few that I've kept... well, maybe 6 or so..

Of those, I've noticed the following, if the cd was produced after 1990, the vinyl will sound either improperly eq'd for vinyl or 'good' but not exponentially better than the cd.

-Examples, John Mayer, poorly eq'd, Peal Jam sounds a little better on vinyl to me sometimes..

With records that were released prior to 1990, the records sound better than the cd, every time.  Not only do they sound better, they sound more like music and like there was no 'digital' anything in the recording process.

-Examples, Parliament's Mothership Connection on 180g vinyl (newer pressing) vs. digitally remastered cd is HANDS DOWN much better on vinyl.  James Moody, very good on vinyl, poor on cd.  Is it mastering decisions?  I don't know.  Bill Evans... same deal... I could go on and on..

This is only my casual observations.

[skaloumbakas]

...Of those, I've noticed the following, if the cd was produced after 1990, the vinyl will sound either improperly eq'd for vinyl or 'good' but not exponentially better than the cd...

I had a couple of TELARC digital recordings on CD and on vinyl. I just sold the CD's, but in general I would agree that digital recordings sound not that much better on vinyl than on CD, but still...

Thanks for your input

[rmihai0]

Kind of agree with both of you. My findings are very similar. Recordings before 1990 always are better on vinyl. But, because there is a "but" there are some new remastered CD's that are sounding at least as good as the original LP version. This is happening specially with poor recordings on vinyl. So, my observation is that NOT the vinyl was wrong, just the recording! That recording, remastered later on CD might sound better. There are severral examples - especially pop/folk and sometime rock music.

Curious or not classical or jazz always sounded to my ears much better on vinyl. Maybe classical and jazz music benefited of much closer attention when recorded on vinyl from the original tapes (I guess).

Anyhow, I am a vinyl lover and I will always be. My balance of preference is about 2/3 vinyl 1/3 CD. There are some beautiful mastered CD's (especially the later Harmonia Mundi ones) that I like very very much.