Clearly, there are good and bad recordings in all formats. Format may limit potential but does not guarantee quality of the content delivered.
I can not say that in my collection of hundreds of lps and hundreds of CDs that either format contains a higher percentage of either bad, good, great or magical recordings. Two different masterings of the same title will usually sound different though regardless of format of each, and that often dictates which format I chose for a particular recording.
I do think that the most complex classical recordings tend to sound better on vinyl than CD in the case of many systems in that most systems are more capable of delivering the microdynamics inherent in vinyl better than the microdynamics present in digital recordings.
I believe the microdynamics of vinyl are different than those in digital because mass inertia and related physics play a prime role where as this is not the case with digital playback, which is occurs exclusively in the electronic rather than physical domain.
I have found there are ways to address that issue cost effectively with digital as well. The answer I found was careful application of tubes at the line level. I suspect tubes are just inherently better at delivering the microdynamics associated with digital sources after conversion to the analog domain prior to playback compared to SS.
By the way, the % of recordings that sound good to me is a metric I use and would recommend to gauge system quality regardless of source. When almost everything at least sounds good, and some things sound great, I feel I am where I need to be.
I've played dozens of CDs recently with a variety of material originally recorded as far back as the 1920s since my latest system tweaks. There were only 2 I recall that, knowing their age and history, underwhelmed me, and these were clearly due to lackluster CD production, period. One was an old CD mastering of Carole King's Tapestry, which was just unnaturally flat sounding and another was a CD of old Dinah Wahington blues material from teh 1950's that apparently was just transfered to CD with no attention to remastering or sound quality. Almost everything else sounds very good to exceptional at present.
I can not say that in my collection of hundreds of lps and hundreds of CDs that either format contains a higher percentage of either bad, good, great or magical recordings. Two different masterings of the same title will usually sound different though regardless of format of each, and that often dictates which format I chose for a particular recording.
I do think that the most complex classical recordings tend to sound better on vinyl than CD in the case of many systems in that most systems are more capable of delivering the microdynamics inherent in vinyl better than the microdynamics present in digital recordings.
I believe the microdynamics of vinyl are different than those in digital because mass inertia and related physics play a prime role where as this is not the case with digital playback, which is occurs exclusively in the electronic rather than physical domain.
I have found there are ways to address that issue cost effectively with digital as well. The answer I found was careful application of tubes at the line level. I suspect tubes are just inherently better at delivering the microdynamics associated with digital sources after conversion to the analog domain prior to playback compared to SS.
By the way, the % of recordings that sound good to me is a metric I use and would recommend to gauge system quality regardless of source. When almost everything at least sounds good, and some things sound great, I feel I am where I need to be.
I've played dozens of CDs recently with a variety of material originally recorded as far back as the 1920s since my latest system tweaks. There were only 2 I recall that, knowing their age and history, underwhelmed me, and these were clearly due to lackluster CD production, period. One was an old CD mastering of Carole King's Tapestry, which was just unnaturally flat sounding and another was a CD of old Dinah Wahington blues material from teh 1950's that apparently was just transfered to CD with no attention to remastering or sound quality. Almost everything else sounds very good to exceptional at present.