Consider this: I worked as a recording engineer for 45 years. In the last 20 years, I did many A vs D shootouts. Here's what I found: younger people - despite their better hearing - came more and more to prefer the sound of digital. Clearly, the gear has gotten significantly better, but that didn't seem to adequately explain the change I saw in how many votes digital got in comparison to analog. Then it dawned on me, the younger engineers and musicians had grown up on digital, and the music many of them listen to was created using the particularities of digital recording. To them, that's how it's "supposed" to sound. Older engineers and musicians would typically prefer analog, but they would be sitting in a group of younger engineers who heard the same playback (over excellent systems in actual recording studios) and the young guys clearly tended to vote for the digital versions. I also noticed that the percentage of older engineers who voted for the analog versions was slowly falling over the years. Our tastes and expectations seem to be evolving. I think that music consumers are now also "learning" the sound of digital and they love the snappy, crisp sound and the immensely greater convenience of digital. As for me, I can hear and appreciate the qualities of good analog, but I HATE surface noise on records and I resent having to get out of my chair, lift the needle, and start "side B". My digital setup sounds SO good, that I rarely bother with analog sources anymore (though I do use a tube amplifier to drive my speaker system from 80 HZ up).
Does Anyone Think CD is Better Than Vinyl/Analog?
I am curious to know if anyone thinks the CD format (and I suppose that could include digital altogether) sounds better than vinyl and other analog formats. Who here has gone really far down both paths and can make a valid comparison? So far, I have only gone very far down the CD path and I just keep getting blown away by what the medium is capable of! I haven’t hit a wall yet. It is extremely dependent on proper setup, synergy and source material. Once you start getting those things right, the equipment gets out of the way and it can sound more fantastic than you can imagine! It’s led me to start developing a philosophy that goes something like this: Digital IS “perfect sound forever”; it’s what we do to the signal between the surface of the CD and the speaker cone that compromises it.”
So I suppose what I’m asking for is stories from people who have explored both mediums in depth and came to the conclusion that CD has the most potential (or vice versa - that’s helpful too). And I don’t simply mean you’ve spent a lot of money on a CD player. I mean you’ve tinkered and tweaked and done actual “research in the lab,” and came back with a deep understanding of the medium and can share those experiences with others.
In my experience, the three most important things to get right are to find a good CD player (and good rarely means most expensive in my experience) and then give it clean power. In my case, I have modified my CD player to run off battery power with DC-DC regulators. The last thing that must be done right is the preamp. It’s the difference between “sounds pretty good” and “sounds dynamic and realistic.”
So I suppose what I’m asking for is stories from people who have explored both mediums in depth and came to the conclusion that CD has the most potential (or vice versa - that’s helpful too). And I don’t simply mean you’ve spent a lot of money on a CD player. I mean you’ve tinkered and tweaked and done actual “research in the lab,” and came back with a deep understanding of the medium and can share those experiences with others.
In my experience, the three most important things to get right are to find a good CD player (and good rarely means most expensive in my experience) and then give it clean power. In my case, I have modified my CD player to run off battery power with DC-DC regulators. The last thing that must be done right is the preamp. It’s the difference between “sounds pretty good” and “sounds dynamic and realistic.”