Vinyl or wait for the new stuff??

I've been reading Peter Aczel on and off since the mid-1970s. IMHO, he shouts to make his point of the day, but is as likely to flip-flop as a fish in the bottom of the boat. Yes, CDs can sound pretty darn good and digital can sound extremely good, but what we can order online is usually much better in vinyl. It has to do with the format first, but also the care with which the perveyors of vinyl put their offerings together.

Now it's getting harder and harder to buy a CD that's not seriously overcompressed. The SACDs are getting all screwed up trying to offer a surround version of a two-channel recording. With vinyl they're forced to stick to the basics and do a really good job of that.

I've got an incredible DSD recorder that'll give me 130dB of dynamic range and make better than vinyl 5.6MHz recordings, but there's no software available. We'll see what happens, but with the transition to downloads, all the momentum is toward mp3. There are some really good downloads, but they're few and far between.

Anyway, I wouldn't but a lot of stock in Mr. Aczel's rants.

Dave

I personally think that vinyl will outlast all digital forms in the end. Certainly there is no doubt that it will outlast CD. SACD is a joke. Downloads will be the next thing, once they loose all compression and more easily can be played from a hard drive. Yeah, yeah, I know...lossless still sucks. Vinyl beats everything and probably always will.

Chashmal, why would you say SACD is a joke? I'm finding that it meets and/or beats vinyl, depending on the engineering. For instance, all the SACD reissues of the classica RCA recordings of the 1950s are as good or superior to my "shaded dog" copies of the same.

With the right playback equipment, even CDs are not "a joke." They leave something to be desired, but with new upscaling schemes to DSD, elimation of jitter in some machines and other enhancements, the format is finally living up to it's promise.

I too like the hi rez download direction, BUT downloading 3-gig files is a drag, particularly when there are errors in the middle of the download. Even on a T1 line the downloads have been slow and inaccurate for me.

Dave

Vinyl can sound great on cheap equipment, I know since I've been listening to it for 50 years. You don't need an expensive turntable etc,to enjoy vinyl. Yes, it's better but not necessary.
Yet, not all vinyl is equal. Some vinyl really sucks and is not as good as it's digital equivalent.
In many instances it comes down to the recording quality, and some digital, anyway, keeps getting better.
The wild card is digital played from computer files where there is no moving playback (such as a cd player). This has enormous potential and is believed by some (when lossless) to be far superior to any current cd player. If this is perfected and storage capabilities are improved then it could get very interesting.

Couldn't resist the resurrection of this vintage thread. Let's get past splitting hairs: Both digital and vinyl can be made to sound very satisfying. However, digital is and always will be a convenience format. If you want to easily access your music and don't like to fiddle with gear, go digital. If you enjoy a tactile experience with your software and playback gear, go with vinyl. I fall into the second camp. I have two lower-side of hi-end CD players (each was $1400 new) that satisfy me totally when I need to pop something in and do something that may demand my attention, like when I'm entertaining or drawing. However, when I want to LISTEN, I enjoy the enforced focus that vinyl provides. There is nothing more deliberate than sliding a 40-year-old slab of vinyl out of its beautiful jacket and dropping a needle whose pressure and position you set up onto it-- This act even focuses the attention of others whom you are introducing to the music.