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.”
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Showing 2 responses by unreceivedogma

Postscript:

I started listening to vinyl when I was 9 years old. That was 57 years ago. I started listening to CDs when I was 40, a mere 26 years ago. My ears are “tuned” for analog. 
Visit theaudioatticvinylsundays.com to see a description of my playback system. 
This question will not change anybody’s mind.
For the record:

- I have both CD and vinyl formats. - I have comparable quality playback hardware for each

- while vinyl requires signal interventions that offend the kind of purists who rush to digital as a consequence, to my ears vinyl sounds superior and is more engaging. This is in part because digital also has a signal intervention: it divides the audio spectrum into bits and the sampling rate settled on by the recording industry for reasons of profit is not sufficient to capture all the data that analog does.

- a friend who is also an audiophile has a digital system. His system is more costly than mine. In some ways it captures more detail, but the experience to my ears is lifeless. The sound was flat, as if a picture painted onto a wall. My system is dynamic, with sound like sculpture in space.