When and how did you, if at all, realize vinyl is better?

I LOVE BOTH !!

There is both GREAT sounding music and BAD sounding music on both CD and Vinyl.  Don't blame the medium!  Any great sounding mix can be put on CD or Vinyl and sound great...... OR it can be poorly mastered, or over-compressed and sound terrible.   Why do we have to choose??

  When Julius Futterman explained the differance of digital vs anolog in his book back in the early 80s. And the difference has become greater with every turntable and cartridge upgrade.

why is it I record a vinyl LP onto digital, and yet the playback has that emotional connection of vinyl that so many report here?
Done that and then compared the bought CD, and yes the LP is warmer.
After the A/D conversion, both are digital now, why are they so feeling different. If I re-record the CD at the output of the DAC using the same recorder the difference is not obvious. I understand the playback gear for analog might have a warmer electronics, but that warmth Does come out at the output of a digital recording when the source happens to be an LP.

@mferland651, analogue gear is not necessarily warmer, but playing a record on a rotating platter, then passing the vibrations picked up by the stylus through the electromagnetic field of the cartridge, and finally sending the signal up the tonearm (which can resonate) results in distortions being generated. The sound now has colourations which we perceive as being warm. These harmonic distortions are different than those produced by digital playback and are more pleasing to to the ear.

Additionally, a vinyl record has been pressed with an equalization standard that has been set by the RIAA.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RIAA_equalization
CD’s are mastered from digital files, even if the original source was analogue. Compression is used in varying amounts throughout the entire digital process.

Right now, let’s assume we were comparing an analogue recording which was released on both vinyl and CD. A modern day digital recording which has been pressed on vinyl is not going to have the same sonic characteristics as a pre-digital age record (the good old days). It came from a digital file and has been equalised for vinyl, then your TT setup will add it’s colourations during playback.
It's important to note that the entire analogue recording process imparts a certain sonic signature onto the recording due to the use of tape machines and different studio electronics, be they tube or solid state.

mferland65
1 posts
my first post...
why is it I record a vinyl LP onto digital, and yet the playback has that emotional connection of vinyl that so many report here?

That is interesting. I find, similarly, that "digitally remastered" cassettes have more emotional impact than their CD counterparts. Digitally remastered cassettes such as Kind of Blue have more air, greater dynamic range and more of that certain, je ne sais quoi, let’s call it expressiveness or musicality. Digital rain striking the ground doesn’t sound like real rain, nor does digital applause sound like real applause. Not as liquid, not as coherent. Not even close.

Lowrider nailed it - this is sonic bliss:

"playing a record on a rotating platter, then passing the vibrations picked up by the stylus through the electromagnetic field of the cartridge, and finally sending the signal up the tonearm (which can resonate) results in distortions being generated. The sound now has colourations which we perceive as being warm. These harmonic distortions are different than those produced by digital playback and are more pleasing to to the ear."