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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 3 responses by kijanki

kijanki's avatar
kijanki
4,446 posts
 
Al - what if Master Tape is digital (most common)?

1. Master Tape to CD to DAC to amp
2. Master Tape to DAC to LP to amp

Both have one D/A conversion. Perhaps quality of D/A conversion is important since most of LPs now comes from digital Master Tapes?
kijanki's avatar
kijanki
4,446 posts
 
Mrtennis - why microphone? With the pricetag of top quality gear it might be cheaper to hire Symphony Orchestra to play at your place.
kijanki's avatar
kijanki
4,446 posts
 
Al - I agree. Quality of implementation is the key. Nyquist preserves frequency information but it is hard to imagine sinewave at 20kHz recreated with two samples per period.

In addition there are personal preferences, convenience and different technologies (D/A conversion, amplification, speakers). This hobby is more of an art than science.
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