faint precession of sound on vinyl

As passionate as I am about vinyl, this is one area where CD works. Too bad it sounds as dead as my great grandfather's genitals.

Some forms of distortion are pleasing to the ear - since the Beatles engineers have been playing around with effects to enhance sound. Pre-echo occurs throughout the LP and may be one of the reasons for your preference. Remember that studios/musicians use reverb and concert halls are treasured for their ambient sound...pre-echo is a kind of ambience and may actually give more life to the music (to your ears)...

Shadorne: are you saying this is an intentional effort on the part of engineers?

Shadone...I am a professional musician and can tell you flat out that pre-echo should not be there. It is not natural and is sometimes a serious fault. I believe this is from the storage of the tape when a the adjacent layer picks up the magnetic energy from its neighbor. Usually it can be heard during a quiet passage just before a louder one. I have heard pre=echo on a CD version of an older performance as well.

Stringreen: I thought so. It is the only plausible scenario I have heard yet. I have heard so many weird explanations ranging from satanic conspiracies to the aforementioned theory of engineers adding 'richness'. I listen to so much quiet music that it can be a problem, however there is no substitute for vinyl, IMO.