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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.”
128x128mkgus
sandthemall
544 posts
 
There seems to be a group of people who keep saying...'who cares about the format...it's about the music...or 'it's up to you which you decide to go with' etc. 

The real question can never be answered if you keep changing the conversation. We have the freedom to think/say whatever we want...but the general consensus from my recent inquiries in the interwebs is that R2R is the best listening format, followed by the LP and then CDs.

(I listen to mostly LP...no way I'm gonna invest in R2R until the recording industry goes back to tape. Just like some people aren't going back to LP)

You can argue the technological math but the many actual ears are affirming otherwise.

Hi-res digital is another factor but I imagine that R2R will prevail if the original masters were tape. 




coltrane1's avatar
coltrane1
736 posts
 
Anyone who has ears can hear that vinyl is far superior to digital. If you can’t hear the difference, you don’t have audio ears. 
lalitk's avatar
lalitk
5,405 posts
 
^^^^Is today April Fool’s Day? 😂
audio2design
1,351 posts
 
You would be surprised how few audiophiles have actually heard R2R in a system that they know well enough to separate the qualities of the R2R from everything else, not that that will stop a large number of them from claiming that they do.

Similarly, a most audiophiles really don't know what the music/vocals sound like at the time of recording. They claim they are looking for realistic while not knowing what that sounds like.

When I talk about which is "better", I talk about potential. Digital, without question high-res digital has the capability to be better than vinyl by a fairly good margin, and to R2R by a fairly good margin too.  That does not mean that a large group of audiophiles will not prefer the colorations that occur from vinyl and yes R2R. Is it the comfort of a bit of noise, possible detail emphasis from noise, frequency emphasis, frequency roll-off, less masking due to less information content, inherent compression? ... Does not matter, if you like it you like it, just try not to fool yourself that it is accurate and try not to claim to others it is and set unrealistic expectations (and cause arguments).

Anyone who claims vinyl is "far superior" I find has a particular taste that strays from realistic. No shame in that. Some have a real hard time getting past what can be considered minor surface noise/clicks/pop of vinyl and delving into the music.  I also find that "consensus" w.r.t. what is best, is really a consensus of people who are far past their best hearing days, and have a huge history of acclimatizing to what can be called legacy formats.


For those who don't know, there is a lot of work done on plug ins to pull digital away from perfection, not for all music, but it works for some genres, likely in how I seem to have a preference for the final result on vinyl with rock/pop which prefer pristine digital for others.
camb
164 posts
 
An interesting POV:

https://www.vox.com/2014/4/19/5626058/vinyls-great-but-its-not-better-than-cds
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