The cost of LP's and CD's - an observation

True Orpheus10. I said this before, and it should be a given. If we are talking about analog versus digital front ends, we need to realize that an entry level analog setup is not going to soar above a top tier digital rig and vice versa.

My uncle was the first audiophile I ever knew. He was a neurologist in New Orleans. I remember a lot of McIntosh and Klipsch gear. I also remember visiting there when I was a child and one entire wall of his dedicated listening room was vinyl albums floor to ceiling. All classical.

When I went back maybe 10 years later that wall was full of CDs. No vinyl in sight.
He knew someone at Sony and they sent him pre-release CDs for his review.
Was he a discriminating listener? Did he have golden ears? I don’t know. I do know that he knew classical music. And it was very clear that the CD suited him just fine.

As far as 80’s recording quality? Steely Dan. Maybe not everyone’s cup of tea in terms of production characteristics but it was clear that it was well and meticulously done and pretty much exactly what they intended.

Plenty of great music and recordings available on CD, Streaming and Vinyl. Ever since switching to Streaming five years ago, I became very selective in what I buy on CD or Vinyl. My current collection of CD’s and Vinyl are under 200 each and they represent some of the finest recordings available on both formats.

Enjoy the music and STOP worrying about which format is superior or their price of admission :-)

@orpheus10 Idk - I believe the convenience of a cd - being able to skip and select tracks at a whim - was a big factor in people moving over to that medium. Add to that their portability (who here once had a Discman of any iteration?) and it's no surprise they became so popular.

I imagine most were not playing them on systems with any real fidelity, either.

Simao, all the people I knew were impressed with the "noise less" fidelity; which was far superior to "mid-fi". The convenience was just icing on the cake.

Even today, while vinyl is being pushed, CD's are still better than "Mid-FI" and all these thing people hear with "Lo-Fi" vinyl are things we didn't hear during the 50 years preceding CD, but people are convinced that they hear what we didn't hear during all those years.

The only thing different today is the "expensive Hi-end" analog rig, which was also available back in the day, but few people had them. Not until CD did the masses become interested in "expensive analog rigs". Only after the "high enders" began to preach that vinyl was better than CD did they want to discover.

I feel sorry for people buying cheap record players and looking for something special because they got a vinyl record.