CD vs. Vinyl

Physics accounts for much of the difference in sound.

A stylus tracking a record has mass and is hampered by inertia as it tracks a record and modulates to produce a signal. High frequency transients, if even present in the recording to start with, are essentially filtered and come across smoother as a result. It is a challenge for an amp to handle high frequency transients well. As a result, the micro dynamics produced from vinyl is less challenging to amplify accurately and the results are considered "smoother" and more pleasant by many as a result.

With digital, there is no mass or inertia at play. There can be jitter and other imperfections in the D to A process that affects the shape of the resulting waveform when samples are not converted properly at precisely the right time. The extent to which this occurs largely impacts the clarity of the resulting sound but the nature of the distortion is inherently different from that involved with records. When digital is done well, transients and microdynamics are more challenging for amps to reproduce accurately. When all this works well though the overall dynamics of the resulting sound is more vivid and lifelike than vinyl in general, IMHO.

"For CDs, you can get audiophile sound for hundreds, not thousands. And the rig should last you decades without any pain. "

Is this perhaps part of why many high end audio buffs are so pro vinyl and anti CD? Hundreds of dollars is certainly not high end, right?

I'd also argue that audiophile vinyl can be had for hundreds as well but it does not come as EASY. EASY is the key word. Then again, EASY is not very high end either.

"As far as "easy" is concerned, why would higher-end have to be difficult? "

Because it is always harder to do anything really well.

Take a look at some of the high end systems on this site and what the owners have gone through to get where they are and it should become clear that high end often means complex and hard. Not always, but I think there is a general case to make based on the evidence that this is an accurate assessment.

Learsfool,

I believe in many cases where digital does not sound as good as vinyl, a big part part of the problem (alongside jitter) is that the amp's transient response is not fast and accurate enough to handle the digitally produced signals transients accurately whereas this is less of a problem with vinyl sources.

I can get all the dynamics I can handle in my setup with either digital or good vinyl these days but this has not always been the case. Getting the digital dynamics and transients to sound right has been the bigger and more costly challenge for me.

Vinyl surface noise when present then is the biggest thing that gives away the nature of the source to me. Live music does not have surface noise.