'80s vinyl sound like CDs?

Agree with Mattmiller regarding the higher quality of original vinyl pressings over new vinyl, including 1980s pressings. The vinyl cutters back then were master craftsmen with years of experience.
In the case of digital vinyl, there was a learning curve and some records weren't pressed using proper RIAA equalization, but was corrected. Also during the 80s there were many AAD mastered recordings which made for good sounding vinyl. IME, it was certain record labels who were putting out these "CD like" pressings.
Also, there were no Loudness Wars with high compression back then. I was an audio engineer in the 80s and I think there was a lot of pride among the techs who produced vinyl that their product didn't sound like CDs.

And good point, Mapman regarding the POP digital recordings which made for some very bad vinyl.

Whoa to you Mattmiller :), I'm talking about what were new releases in the mid and late 80's, when the studios were starting to record everything digitally, not analog recordings and pressings which I completely agree were probably at the top of their game by the early 80's. And you may have a point about the cutting of vinyl in the 80's, but to me it's extremely easy to tell if a vinyl release from that time period was recorded digitally or not. And I'm not saying that today's pressing are better than pressings in the early 80's, just that most pressings today of new releases, recorded digitally, do sound comparably better than digitally recorded releases from the later part of the 80's.

I feel your pain on the price of vinyl. I too think they are too expensive, and I don't like what it's doing to the used market either.

And since you don't like cables with BOXES ;), what have you found to work well. I'm always looking for something to improve my system, and am using Transparent currently simply because I haven't found something better as yet. In the Audio Wasteland that I live in, I don't get to hear a lot of different equipment, so I would love to know what you have found.

A lot of recording studios replaced tube amps with solid state amps back in the seventies. Big mistake.

Hi Elizabeth,

I'm not saying digitally recorded vinyl are necessarily inferior, and I realize that every recording is different. I'm just noticing that a lot of the vinyl from the 80's is not as ....something, compared to vinyl from before and after the time period of mid 80's to sometime in the 90's, and am totally guessing if it has to do with primitive digital recording methods. That's why I'm here asking for opinions and whether or not others have noted the same. This is not any kind of agenda, but a search for knowledge.

BTW, I always enjoy your no nonsense posts, and overall, I agree with your opinions.

Good listening,
Mike