Analogue from Digital

it’s just not that simple to paint all vinyl from digital with a broad brush. or even that simple to view redbook disc or file with a broad brush.

it really depends on the original recording, and the digital and vinyl mastering’s. some digital recordings lend themselves more to a great vinyl transfer than others. jazz and classical seem to be more likely to have live and ambient simpler recording processes, more meat on the bones. so the vinyl from those types of music is quite satisfying comparatively.

my experience is about 60% to 70% of the time, i enjoy the vinyl more. but i’m not buying too much commercial pop/rock digital sourced vinyl, with lowest common denominator recording pedigrees. when i do the best recordings transfer the best to vinyl. some surprisingly really satisfy.

over time you can identify the labels and artists that tend to do a better job with their vinyl.

obviously this question also involves the quality of your sources, both vinyl and digital.....is the vinyl playback capable of revealing the best of the pressing?

It depends who cut the lacquer disc, pressing plant is also very important. Your cartridge and the whole analog rig are very important. In other words you don’t know what you’re listening to.

I hate digital, but everything is much simpler with digital, you’re always listening to the master (if it was originally recorded in digital format).

If you want ANALOG just don’t buy digitally remastered reissues and don’t buy new records if they are recorded digitally (it's not the analog, not even close).

Back in the day, I had vinyl and early CDs of the same album from the same recording and time period. I'm guessing these were AAD CDs. Tape hiss was readily apparent on the CDs. Anyway...They both sounded very similar but the CDs lacked the pops and ticks. I'm going to say that today there is a vinyl mix and a CD mix, so there is no telling what you will get. Different but maybe not better or worse. 

To be more specific about my own conundrum. I generally prefer vinyl. I have a number of recordings on both CD and vinyl where the analogue is so obviously better, it's almost a joke (compare, for example, the 2019 Blue Note/Solid State vinyl rendering of Chick Corea's "Now He Sings, Now He Sobs" v. the CD version). That said, I find that so many vinyl pressings these days are marred in some way (especially pressings of Blue Note recordings, unfortuantely), and it's a pain to send so many LPs back. Plus, they cost more. Plus, the uncertain benefits of vinyl pressings from digitally recorded and mastered albums, i.e., the vast majority of recordings these days. Plus the fact that vinyl requires extra TLC. I just wonder whether it's worth bothering with vinyl, unless I already possess good information about the recording and pressing.

I know just what you mean. It is why I hardly ever mess with modern pressings. If you want to listen to a lot of different music, especially new, give up and stream it. If you want to listen to really good music, really good recordings, and with the very best sound quality, then search out the best vintage vinyl and accept that used is the tradeoff for better.    

I don't play music for background while puttering around doing other stuff, all my listening is high quality sit and do nothing but. So this is an easy one for me, and I go even further and buy a very few Hot Stampers because the sound is to die for even though I could easily buy five or ten perfectly decent records for the cost of one Hot Stamper. Last night listening to the 1812 I know I made the right choice. I also no there is no new music out there can touch it. But there is plenty of "new to me" old music that good. So why mess with new?