Vinyl sounds better (shots fired)

If I am listening to classical music, I find vinyl replays it closer to how it sounds in Meyershoff, Carnegie or David B. Geffen halls. The way the music "billows" as it does in real life is more apparent to me with my turntable than with my digital setup, and that's any digital setup I've had for the past 35 years. And jazz as well.

If I'm playing pop music, digital is okay and I don't find myself comparing the sounds of different formats. So much pop music (my collection is mainly records from the 40s through to the 90s) was so mediocre - even when remastered - that I accept the sound that's there. 

@billpete 

I agree. I find that, even when it was recorded poorly, it also had fewer microphones and all the things they do in the engineering that reduces the "aliveness" of  music nowadays, that it sounds more like there are real people playing real instruments.

'There was an old album reviewed by The Absolute Sound. It was done in the 1920s and 30s and it's all a one microphone setup and these are people who play music. Some played 'fiddles,' some banjo, some guitar. What's striking is how real the music sounds. It doesn't fool me into believing it's 'live' but it sounds FAR less processed than your average CD.

When I was learning to play guitar, I listened to a lot of pre war country blues all the way back to Charlie Patton on tape and later CD copied from old 78s. It’s amazing how the performances can sometimes transcend the limitations of those old analogue recordings.

It sure is!

I wouldn't trade my vinyl for digital for anything in the world I have both, and they both sound good, but vinyl does it for me, especially when listening to classical, jazz or blues. Pop? Digital. Recently produced? Digital. But if it was made in the '50s, '60s or '70s, I'll stick with vinyl. Digital, of course, has the 'numbers.' But this is music. 

@newton_john Thank you. That is a very elegant explanation for the differences people hear (if they do!) between music released on vinyl and digital.

@dogberry Analog guys dump on digital on WBF all the time. It happens , but your point is spot on regardless 

No, we don't 'dump' on digital. It's just that many of us read, write and play music and have for many decades, so we say that vinyl more completely produces the sounds of music, which it does. 

If you are listening to classical music, you could easily hear what digital doesn't do, as well as analog. Ambience, for one, is suggested by digital, but it rarely gets the entire ambience of a club or symphony hall correctly, although the better recordinss to a better job of it. (A friend of mine who has a music degree) suggested I listen to a Brucker recording that was done at the Concertgebouw, and that the ambience of the hall was even apparent on his system (I gave him that system, so I know its strengths and weaknesses), which didn't surprise me. But it's not as easily completely outlined in digital, and, before some less-than-mature posters suggest it could be my dac, I want to assure you: that's not it.

The more I've thought about it, the more I'm convinced that most of the people who post snarky posts are completely unfamiliar with acoustic music. Anyone who's familiar with acoustic instruments knows what they sound like. But most of the posters post things like "if-the-vinyl-freaks-heard-good-digital-they'd-be-depressed."

Well no, "we" wouldn't, since "we" already have an excellent digital setup. And I STILL say vinyl conveys the music more closely to what is sounds like in the symphony hall. Now, if what people listen to is pop, rock and all the other music that is filtered, manipulated and sounds that way, then that's their thing. That's why the majority of my music is 50s, 60s and 70s, although I have plenty of '80s and '90s music, due to also being a club DJ during those decades. So I can listen to two records, one made in say, 1975, and one made in 1985. The 1985 disc usually lacks bass (especially if it was pop. The 80s had the worst bass, especially Electra Records), the voices are doubled (or smeared) and the lead vocalist sounds like a real, live human being. There was more manipulation of records in the '80s than in the preceding 3 decades combined! So, if that is someone's diet, no wonder they don't  hear differences in cables, in speaker systems. "Garbage in, garbage out" in music leads to the kind of 'diet' that will not bless you with any kind of hearing acuity.