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Are Digitally mastered LPs any better than CDs?

It seems to me a vinyl album that was mastered digitally would be the worst of both worlds - the digital effects would still be present,overlaid with surface noise, dust pops, no convenience features (remote control track skip, etc). I suppose if you don't have a great digital front-end, the record could sound like a CD playing on a much better CD player than you have. Or maybe if the digital master was a hi-res format, your record could sound like an SACD playing on a very high-end player, overlain with surface noise. Am I missing something?
honest1

Showing 3 responses by johnnyb53

johnnyb53
3,510 posts
 
It's not like every LP you put on is going to be ridden with surface noise and tics and pops. In fact, the digitally mastered LPs I have are particularly quiet. I like all-analog LPs the best, but I have gone out of my way to buy digitally recorded LPs of which I already had the CDs because I like the sound better on vinyl.

For 15 years or so, most albums have been digitally recorded at high sampling rates--88.2, 96, 176.4, 192 KHz, or DSD at 2.7 or 5.4 MHz, and 20 or 24 bits if pcm. When you get an LP so recorded, there's a really good chance the D/A conversion is from the recording's native mode at that high sampling rate and if applicable, the longer word length. The D/A process is also handled by a multi-thousand-dollar pro D/A converter. If you buy a CD, the hi-rez master is downconverted to 44.1 Khz/16 bit rendition, and the D/A is handled by whatever you have on your equipment rack. I'll take the LP.
johnnyb53
3,510 posts
 
What Photon46 said! That's my experience exactly. For me, a "digitally recorded" classical record may not be my first choice, but it's not a deal-killer. I have several that are very musically satisfying, and that's what it's all about, isn't it?
These include a young Josh Bell playing violin concertos, a recital album by Kiri Te Kanawa, several Mozart piano concertos on Hungaraton, and the Romero brothers tearing it up on classical guitar.

I also went to the trouble of getting an LP off eBay UK of the digitally recorded "Question and Answer" jazz trio by Pat Metheny, Dave Holland, and Roy Haynes. It is one of my very favorites. My digitally recorded Geffen LPs sound pretty good to me.

They'll never supplant "Kind of Blue," "Muddy Waters, Folk Singer," or the analog-recorded Diana Krall LPs though.
johnnyb53
3,510 posts
 
It'd be great if there was a way to trace a particular vinyl album's recording lineage to see if the master was analog, hi-rez, or 16/44. Could devote a whole website to the topic.
OK, I'll start: It's my understanding that the LP version of Brian Wilson's "SMiLE" was mastered from the 88.2/24 source, and sounds better than the CD.

The liner notes on the Diana Krall "From This Moment On" LP state that she still records in analog.

Although all of Mapleshade's music products are CD, he records in very high-res, lo-noise analog. Perhaps we could prevail on him to cut some LPs of his most desirable titles?

Anybody know the source/mastering of Paul McCartney's "Memory Almost Full" LP (I have it)?
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