Records are better. I actually heard it

Hey Audiotomb,

You know, to be really honest, a significant chunk of my collection is post-1989, though my tastes are all over the place. I do have my share of Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Alice in Chains, Primus, Tool, Tori Amos records and so on--even a some punk and metal! It's the music I grew up with so I'm partial to it, even if it's not the most brilliant stuff in the world. In fact, in the pics of my virtual system, the record sitting on the Gyrodec is an AIC record ;) I'll say that most of the new vinyl I buy is modern music--I'm suprised at how much is available these days!

However, I do have my share of 50's to early 80's music as well and love that too. Some gems are my original Tommy and early pressing DSOTM (I also have the newest 30th edition Dark Side and it sounds incredible), an old Pink Floyd 3-LP bootleg set that may be a Dark Side-era German bootleg, Miles Davis Quiex pressing, Janis, Lou Reed, Sabbath and so-on. I have my eyes out for some good quality Joni Mitchells and early Santanas lately, and more Lou Reed/Velvet stuff too.

I've noticed that alot of my friends' collections are mostly older, pre 80's vinyl. They have some gems, original Led Zep, Floyd and Beatles records and so-on. Cliche but good nonetheless...especially for us "digital" kids ;)

I did something similar, got an old Thorens TD-110 and put on
a decent cartridge (Shure something 97 something). It sounds
fairly good, but you are definitely taking a risk with old
equipment. If I could do it again I would at least have held
out for a TD-125.

However, even a couple of $50 mistakes isn't too bad if you
find a good one.

And don't neglect those new 200g pressings from Classic Records....They're expensive, but they DO sound better!

Norah Jones' record is unbelievable on LP. Lush!

I just ordered Santana's Supernatural (for fifty bucks!) They got me, man...I need the fix!! The CD is killer. I can't wait for the LP.

Don't misunderstand...I've got a ton of bargain records, too... but these 200g pressings are really special. I reserve them for impressing non-stereophiles and for special nights with the grills off the speakers and the lights down low.

BTW, my system is kinda top-end (not braggin', just happy :) ....so maybe that's why these make a difference.

Bye!

On Christmas, I was laughing as I first played Nat King Cole's "Christmas Song" on CD then on 35 year old record. Even a deaf person would be able to hear that the record sounded so much better.

However, the public has been brainwashed that CDs are better. The "Perfect Sound" I guess wasn't perfect as we now have DVD-A and SACD. The more I read about the latter two, the less inclined I am to pursue them.

Well, I guess I'll trot it out again: No one could accuse me of having a digital bias, since my vinyl collection positively dwarfs my CD collection. But the fact is, of the material I own in both formats, some recordings sound better on LP, some on CD. This includes vintage as well as new vinyl pressings, although I own relatively few new pressings by comparison. And in certain areas of sonic performance, such as transient definition or background quietness (otherwise known as signal-to-noise ratio), CD always has an advantage.

I'll be the first to admit that neither my analog nor my digital rigs are state-of-the-art, but IMO it's a lot like real estate, where they say the three most important things are location, location, and location. With recording formats, the three most important things are mastering, mastering, and mastering (plus pressing, especially for the vinyl record). If your vinyl record is better mastered than your CD of the same material, then it will sound better on a decent rig, and the same thing is true in reverse if your CD contains the better mastering job. If both formats are very well mastered, then in my experience it doesn't make a whole damn lot of difference which format you listen to as long the playback gear is of roughly comparable quality.

With that in mind, CD's are more convenient for their potential of extended, uninterrupted playing times, programmable/remote track access, and less needy care requirements, so for new issues, if the price is equivalent I generally buy the CD where both formats are offered, and always if the CD contains more bonus tracks (or the LP if it contains more bonus tracks). Of course, there are still many CD's out there where the mastering is of questionable quality, but the same is true for LP's (pressing quality too), so oftentimes you really have to buy and listen to know which format is best for any individual recording, unless someone can tell you in advance.

Anyone who's interested can click on my 'Threads' and go to the one entitled "Upsampling Put to the Test", to read about a test I did where the signal from my analog rig was digitized into Redbook format, then decoded by my DAC and instantaneously compared in a level-matched A-B test to the original unprocessed analog feed. The upshot was that there was very little difference to be heard between the straight analog signal and that same signal as encoded/decoded by my digital rig, and part of what small differences there were in favor of the pure analog feed must be chalked up to the extra cabling involved in transmitting the digitally processed signal. These test results surprised even me, as I had always thought my digital front end did have some sort of slight but identifiably 'digital' character to it that I didn't hear from my analog front end, but the test revealed that the losses were both smaller and of a different sort than I had always assumed, despite the test construction unavoidably favoring the analog a slight bit by default. It forced me to conclude that the vast majority of what I had thought were 'digital'-sounding flaws present in regular CD playback were actually the fault of the software (the mastering and/or the manufacturing) or the disk-reading process, but not the Redbook format itself or my decoder's digital-to-analog conversion process.

Bottom line: If your gear's not handicapping the race too much one way or the other, then the quality of the software (meaning how well it was mastered and manufactured) - rather than its type, LP or CD - will be the most important determinant of the resulting sound quality, IMO.