I'm too young for vinyl to have been a big part of my life, always had CDs growing up, and had moved to mp3s, etc. by my teens.  I always remembered my dad's turntable though, and I remember being amazed that some of his records sounded better than CDs.  Better than CDs!  "Impossible!" I thought, "it's such an OLD technology."  Now I know the differences, and the interworkings of both formats, and maybe it's just because I grew up in the era of digital, but I have almost always favored CDs to vinyl.  Digital offered such a clear, concise, sharp sound, I liked that sound.  Records always sounded so "rounded off", like they were missing some little bit of information that was never accounted for, not to mention it's hard to find a good LP that isn't scratched or fuzzy or beat to hell...  I've come a long way, I have my own turntable now, and I definitely appreciate vinyl sound more, especially for some music.  Some music was just made for vinyl, no doubt about it, but I think digital will always hold the top spot for me, even if vinyl is a (very) close second.

Vinyl certainly does have a unique feel to it.  It can be very emotional.  And I'll give you that about dynamic range, too.  I actually played a few records today after reading and posting here.  In fact, I'm listening to a regrettibly slightly dirty copy of Beethoven's 6th right now, and the dynamics are quite nice.  I understand what you mean about CDs all being one volume, too, though I couldn't explain it.

I would disagree...I believe there is a heirarchy of sound v cost...

1.Vinyl set up properly even on a modest system, will sound better than any compressed digital format

2. CD quality digital will sound better than almost all modest vinyl (defined as a vinyl front end including amp costing under $1000)

I believe one gets better bang for the music dollar with digital at this price point

3. Between $1000 and $5000 we have a dead tie. Both front ends are capable of producing great sound and the actual result is more often defined by the quality of the engineering that went into the recording than the gear it is played back on.

That said, digital is rapidly improving in this price band while improvements in vinyl are more like baby steps.

4. A high rez front end with DAC will play better than vinyl in this price band

5. Above about $5K, a vinyl front end will generally sound better than a digital one Except...dollar for dollar, a High rez front end will sound better than vinyl...ie; spending $10K on a vinyl front end will not result in music as amazing as Hi-rez played back through a DAC at half the cost.

6. above this, when one is speaking of mega buck vinyl, vinyl tops anything I have heard, including todays Hi-rez...

Put another way...I believe one can reach actual class A music playback for far less money with digital but once one tries to go further, expensive vinyl still sounds better.

I have been listening to LPs for 50 years on evrything from a cheap record player to my current turntable/cartridge/phono preamp which cost $4000 or so.

I have also listened to CDs on everything from a 1984 Phillips/Magnavox CD player to the current state-of-the-art player costing over $5000.

Both can sound wonderful; both can sound like crap.

The bottom line for me is that if you want to compare the inherent sound potential of both types of media, you can't be talking about using cheap CD players OR cheap turntables and cartridges. You wouldn't try to make critical  comprisons about two paintings with bullshit smeared on your glasses, and when you are using low-quaity playback equipment that is essentially the same thing. How can you compare when your gear really isn't accurately telling you what is there?!

The sound quality depends so much on the quality of the player or turntable you are using that you need to be very specific about that. For all I can tell you might even be playing records without a phono preamp or equalization. Tell us exactly what you are using and maybe we can get a clue what you may be hearing and why it sounds like it does.

LPs can and will sound mediocre using a cheap turntable or cartridge and CDs don't sound all that great untill you get a pretty good player.

Since you are making very general statements and not telling what you are using for equipment, I don't see how any conclusion could be meaningful.

A relatively cheap CD player will certainly sound worse than a fairly good turntable/cartridge and vice-versa.

I have a Music Hall MMF-7 turntable with a Benz Micro Ace cartridge and an Audio Research PH-5 phono preamp, which is an investment of about $4000. I have an Ayre C5xe/MP player for CD and SACD which cost about the same. I get absolutely wonderful sound from both.

Apples and oranges.

hcsunshine wrote:

i stated in another forum that i wouldn't listen to digital music even if you payed me, but now i've had a change of heart. the first time i heard a cd i felt like there was something wrong with the sound. it sounded "harsh" and blah blah blah.i seem to remember records sounding like they were fundamentaly superior on some level . the sound seemingly to be more natural, dynamic, etc. growing up i collected mostly cd's though. so, then i thought a few months ago i finally decided that i'd go back to collecting vinyl cause the sound i remembered was "better". and i did. i bought 30 records and a turntable. but now that i've compared records and cd's side by side for the first time in awhile i've come to realize that the records don't sound that much better than the cd's. they sound about the same for the most part. i don't know if the records didn't sound as good as i remembered or what. but now i don't have such a negative view of digital music. nothing goes from 20 to 20 like a cd. and its easier to transport and you can play them in your car unlike a record. but my main point here is that to me, records and cd's sound about the same. any comments welcome.