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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

Showing 2 responses by dbphd

dbphd
1,632 posts
 
When you think about the physical compromises required of the stylus and arm along with RIAA contouring you might expect vinyl reproduction to introduce its own coloration. As with tubes, some prefer the resulting sound, a sound they can more or less manipulate with cartridge selection, tracking parameters, and phono stage selection. An original analog recording is more likely to be on tape rather than vinyl.

With digital, you have sampling decisions, but those are quantified. Unpacking digital requires another conversion process, and again quantified decisions.

db
dbphd
1,632 posts
 
Sorry Clio, although I respect your judgments on most audio matters, I think Rrog's analogy is inept. The issue of remaining in the analog domain ignores the major energy transductions from acoustic to electrical then back to acoustic energy. IMO these transductions are far more difficult than sampling a waveform. Mathematical representation of the even high frequency energy in the waveform is entirely possible for digital processing. In either case, the waveform is most likely to have been originally recorded to tape with vagaries like head alignment and print-through if an analog tape recorder was used.

db
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