CD's vs Vinyl - Finally hear the difference


About 2 years ago, I decided to get back into vinyl. I had some old albums I wanted to play, so I blew the dust off my 35 year old TT and fired that mutha up. It took me about 13 months to get my accousic vibration problem licked and to put together some decent analog euipment-some new, some used. Anyway, I started listening to ONLY vinyl. I was surprised how well my albums had been preserved and how well the new ones I purchased sounded. I had read the vinyl purist's comments about how much better records sounded than CD's, but I must admit-I was doubtful. I had put together a fairly good Digital system with a tubed Kora Hermes II DAC. Anyway, I had a friend over the other day and for the first time in almost a year, I put on a CD. I have to say-there is absolutely no comparison how much better vinyl sounds than CD's. CD's sound as though they were recorded in an anechoic chamber. There is no ambience, no warmth, no soul. The music is accurate, but it isn't alive. You simply have to hear it to understand. All the years I wasted listening to CD's! I guess they have their place if you're on the go in cars, boats etc, but if you are wanting to really listen to good quality recorded music, there is only one choice.
handymann
THink about back in the golden age of vinyl (50s-70s), the % of what vinyl lovers on this site would have considered good playback rigs in peoples homes. A fraction of a % I would guess. Most records sounded like crap on most peoples systems back then and the quality of the vinyl product tended to fall overall to that level over time when the novelty wore off and mass marketing set in.

SO the god news is that there were many sonically fascinating recordings on vinyl, especially in the earlier stages, that sound better than ever now on a modern high quality system more due to improvements n speaker and amplifiers more so than any major advancements in phono playback gear.
Good point Mapman! Quality vinyl recordings from back in the day coupled with our recent developments in playback systems, tho IMO with inclusion of TT advancements, together achieve the pinnacle, to date.
I consider my system mid-range from a price perspective. I have a dedicated room so I guess that most of my listening other that in the car is "serious listening". I have been into the audiophile thing about 15 years. I started with CD and had a CD only system (several different CDP's and DAC's) until about 3 years ago. My first year with vinyl in my system my CD/LP listening was 50%/50%. As I moved up the analog learning curve (which was frustrating at times) my analog playback sounded better and better to the point where I now listen to LP's almost 100% of the time. I have not analyzed why one sounds better than the other or the specific differences but when I listen to music (limited to about 5-10 hours per week) I want to put on an LP. It is pretty simple, I just enjoy it more.