CD vs. Vinyl


I've personally had to opportunity to listen to identical music on vinyl and CD on an extremely high end system, possibly a seven figure system, and certainly recognized the stark difference between the vinyl sound and a CD.

What makes this difference? Here are three situation to consider assuming the same piece of music:

(1) An original analogue recording on a vinyl vs. an A/D CD

(2) An original analogue recording on vinyl vs. an original digital recording on CD

(3) An original digial recording on CD vs. a D/A recording on vinyl

I wonder if the sound of vinyl is in some ways similar to the "color" of speakers? It's not so much of an information difference, just the sound of the medium?

Any thoughts?
mceljo
hi kijanki:

i'd rather hear the microphone feed, not the cd and not the lp.

i realize this is impractical. a live broadcast over a decent radio comes close.

sorry to be a wise guy, but i could'nt resist the temptation.
Mrtennis - why microphone? With the pricetag of top quality gear it might be cheaper to hire Symphony Orchestra to play at your place.
what if Master Tape is digital (most common)?

1. Master Tape to CD to DAC to amp
2. Master Tape to DAC to LP to amp

Both have one D/A conversion. Perhaps quality of D/A conversion is important since most of LPs now comes from digital Master Tapes?
Hi Kijanki,

I suppose that there are a number of comparisons along those lines that would yield useful data points. But I think that step 1 in resolving these kinds of debates, which is perhaps all that can ultimately be hoped for, is to get the debates out of the realm of ideology and theory (as to whether or not chopping up the signal into discrete samples and finite numbers of bits is inherently a flawed concept), and to the point where it is recognized that neither the digital nor the analog approach is inherently flawed, and what counts is the quality of the implementation.

I think that a re-do of the Wilson Audio recording I described would go a long way toward either proving or disproving that assertion, and thereby narrowing the scope of these debates.

I certainly don't profess to have the experience to be able to assert either position with certainty, but fwiw my own instinct is that digital is not inherently flawed, and that quality of implementation (in both the recording and mastering process and in the playback process) is what counts.

Best regards,
-- Al
Al - I agree. Quality of implementation is the key. Nyquist preserves frequency information but it is hard to imagine sinewave at 20kHz recreated with two samples per period.

In addition there are personal preferences, convenience and different technologies (D/A conversion, amplification, speakers). This hobby is more of an art than science.
Mrtennis, a live broadcast over the radio is still compressed quite a bit, so it would not be close compared to the master tape.