Volume levels

What about the music itself and the recording itself  Some music (I'm think classical music and acoustic jazz) has much more black space and dark gray, as it were, than pop in general.  Some recordings (and I'm thinking predominantly pop) squeeze the life out of the music by overusing compression.  This affects the volume required to experience the music properly.

@cleeds +1 This was demonstrated by John Darko on his YouTube channel. Recently remastered digital versions of an album had far less dynamic range than the original LP.  Yes as others note, in theory, CDs can have a dynamic range of 96 dB, but that is just the "container".  If the album is overly compressed by the record label due to the loudness wars, then that "container" might as well have a dynamic range of about 20 dB. Sad. But that is where we are. 

As Paul McGowan of PS Audio has said, he'd love to get a chance to record an artist like Adele and do it right compared to the crappy way her last album was foisted on us.  It is almost unlistenable. In fact, I gave my copy away. 

This thread is helping me understand the stakes.

IF we are comparing good, non-compressed recordings only, then the advantages of digital over vinyl are substantial. 

IF we are looking instead at recordings subjected to the "loudness wars and compression" then it may be that one medium or another has the edge.

hilde45

... IF we are comparing good, non-compressed recordings only, then the advantages of digital over vinyl are substantial ...

If you’re talking about commercial recordings, it is an exceptionally rare commercial release that does not include some compression. That’s one of the reasons that I enjoy making my own recordings and - get ready for this - many benefit from slight amounts of cautious compression. Just ask anyone who has experience with recording.

Regardless, LP contains a potential advantage over CD when it comes to HF frequency response. There's a lot of measured data supporting that, so it's dicey to say digital's advantage over analog is necessarily "substantial." It isn't quite that simple, although let's face it - establishing the value of relative differences is really subjective.

Both Ginger Boi' and Cleo the Petra have left any and all exposed speaker surfaces alone @puptent , much to their benefit and continued regular feedings with canned v. 'common kibble distribution by the kibblebot'....🤷‍♂️🙄

Whatttya gonna do...Really....🤨  Toss 'em out into the Real World?

Can't go there....have lost a few felines over the erras' to that and and the other drawbacks of mere existence....simple souls with basic desires 'n needs....*S*

Like Debussy, sometimes I prefer cats to people....understandable simplicity....;)