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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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mikeydee's avatar
mikeydee
47 posts
 
Let’s approach this from a purely musical perspective. A symphony playing a written musical score will play the notes faithfully, but they must also respond to many other notations in the score that the composer added. One of those is dynamics. A composer will add p - pianissimo all the way to FFF - triple forte to notate that they want a particular passage played either very soft or very loud or somewhere in between. This is a very important part of music and a conductor should play close attention to what the composer intended, IMHO.

An advantage that CDs (and digital formats) have is that they can represent dynamics far more accurately than vinyl can as a format. This is not so important in rock of jazz, where dynamics are not as big an issue (a rock band usually plays at the same level of loudness throughout a song). I only heard one jazz group live that ever used dynamics really well and that was Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers (Blakey was a master at loud and soft).

So, I guess it boils down to what kind of music you like to listen to. Rock and Jazz can sound great on vinyl, whereas classical music suffers on vinyl (it sounds too compressed for me).

At least once in your life, buy the expensive tickets to sit in the front row to hear a great symphony orchestra and hear what I mean.

pingpong9
24 posts
 
For me, one of the big factors between vinyl and CDs is convenience. I played vinyl from the 60's to the 90's....and that was enough for me. Besides the clicks, pops and surface noise, vinyl became a chore when trying to listen to just specific songs. That's why cassettes became so popular...you could make mixed tapes of what you wanted to hear and not be forced to listen to a certain artist or type of music. I can't remember when I actually listened to a CD or album from beginning to end....there's always songs I don't care to listen to from the artist.  I do own CDs and I always rip them to lossless audio files and it's all kept on my desktop computer's hard drive. I can sit at my desk and listen to thousands of tracks in any order I choose since my audio system is in my office. I go from my computer via USB cable to a high-end DAC and then to my integrated amplifier.  I also purchase music tracks online and they sound awesome when up-scaled on my DAC.  Vinyl has too many limitations.           
patcrowley57's avatar
patcrowley57
7 posts
 
Whenever someone poses a question about whether A or B is better, my response is the same. Based on what criteria? The question can't be objectively addressed absent that.
As for my opinion, which is highly subjective, I enjoy both forms immensely. I don't believe it is a requirement to choose one over the other, but if you do, just enjoy the trip.
sns
3,203 posts
 
Very few could give a definitive answer,  one would need to equalize vinyl and digital setups. And can that equalization be proven? Ultimately it would be something like Michael Fremer level analog vs. MSB, Totaldac, etc.

And then you have the issue of provenance, lps mastered from digital, digital mastered from analog.

I have no preference as to sound quality, both have their sound, I enjoy both. It all comes down to listening preference for me, stream or rips over NAS for 90% of my listening. I can no longer often bear listening to an entire cd or lp, great music over an entire cd or lp is a rare thing.
speakerbox's avatar
speakerbox
14 posts
 
For my ears there is and harsh edge to CDs, and digital in general, that makes them non-listenable for me.  I get listening fatigue before I get through one CD.  In process of selling off my CD collection.  No digitally mastered vinyl in my collection either.  Long live vinyl.
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