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Does Anyone Think CD is Better Than Vinyl/Analog?

I am curious to know if anyone thinks the CD format (and I suppose that could include digital altogether) sounds better than vinyl and other analog formats. Who here has gone really far down both paths and can make a valid comparison? So far, I have only gone very far down the CD path and I just keep getting blown away by what the medium is capable of! I haven’t hit a wall yet. It is extremely dependent on proper setup, synergy and source material. Once you start getting those things right, the equipment gets out of the way and it can sound more fantastic than you can imagine! It’s led me to start developing a philosophy that goes something like this: Digital IS “perfect sound forever”; it’s what we do to the signal between the surface of the CD and the speaker cone that compromises it.” 
So I suppose what I’m asking for is stories from people who have explored both mediums in depth and came to the conclusion that CD has the most potential (or vice versa - that’s helpful too). And I don’t simply mean you’ve spent a lot of money on a CD player. I mean you’ve tinkered and tweaked and done actual “research in the lab,” and came back with a deep understanding of the medium and can share those experiences with others.

In my experience, the three most important things to get right are to find a good CD player (and good rarely means most expensive in my experience) and then give it clean power. In my case, I have modified my CD player to run off battery power with DC-DC regulators. The last thing that must be done right is the preamp. It’s the difference between “sounds pretty good” and “sounds dynamic and realistic.”
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ruraltraumasurgeon's avatar
ruraltraumasurgeon
29 posts
 
Ken Kessler wrote a piece in a recent HiFi+ about the demographics of those of us who prefer spinning CDs and SACDs. We are baby boomers who like physical media and will continue to buy higher quality reissues of CDs that we already own (think of the latest 50th-anniversary releases by the Beatles and Dead). But then, I also prefer reading (and writing) heavy medical books to reading the same content in a Nook or Kindle.
We will be gone soon and the streaming generations can take over.
clearthinker's avatar
clearthinker
1,582 posts
 
It must be recognised that in 1980 specific storage capacity was orders of magnitude less than it is today. The Red Book CD spec was practical, not theoretical.  It was based on the maximum amount of data that would fit on the chosen silver disc, the Nyquist equation and an 80 minute run-time to allow Beethoven's Ninth to fit. This gave rise to the 16 bit 44.1k standard. Not chosen at all for sound quality, just what would fit. No wonder it can sound very poor, and universally did in 1983, before any of the shortcomings  below started to be addressed.

After 40 years trying, it would appear clock, quantisation, dither, AD converter problems etc  will never be solved.  That means all digital necessarily suffers from false timing, rhythm, dwell artifacts and the widely recognised 'unreal' sound, whatever the information density.  But, properly implemented, more density certainly helps hide these.

But for the CD: 'Perfect sound for ever'?  No.


headphonedreams
524 posts
 
I think it is interesting that digital still gets better. See the January issue of TAS where they review a Wadax dac and the reviewer says it is the best digital he has ever heard. I just hope they can get some of that quality down to "normal" prices.
mcmvmx
108 posts
 
Yes and no . it depends on many variable but normally a 1,000 cd player will sound consistently more musical and accurate hubiera then a 1000 turntable and this price include tonearm and cartridge . 

Now if you get a yourself a 1000 turntable with an integrated tonearm buy yourself a good 500 dollar cartridge be it MM or MC 100 dollar good tablemat , special placement for the turntable to avoid vibrations with good recordings this turntable will be capable of giving any cd player system a run for its money . In other words a well design 2000 dollar modified turntable will challenge and give a good showing of itself to a 5000 dollar cd player be it seperates or integrated . I personally have done the test and these are my findings.
mcmvmx
108 posts
 
There is more consistency on the digital end of recording then the analog side of thing . If you buy 10 LP and 10 cds the 10cd will have a more consistent. sound while the 10 LPs will be all the place sound wise .
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