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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.”
128x128mkgus
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andrei_nz
192 posts
 
My analogue experience is only with vinyl.  My digital experience is with CD, SACD, digital downloads of PCM (CD resolution and Hi-rez), and DSD.  If I may be permitted a small boast I have a high-end turntable, cart and phono stage.  Prior to that I would have said that digital is easily better.  One has to go very far up the food chain for vinyl to sound superior.  If you stop and think about it vinyl is a mechanical method, and has to be done very very well to catch up with digital.  But now  at the broadest generalisation I would say they are equal.  They are different but equal. 

I have several instances where I have a digital and a vinyl copy of the same music.  My experience is that sometimes the vinyl is superior and sometimes the digital is superior.  What I have discerned is this:  in the early days of CD it was inferior.  This was typically because they were issuing digital copies of music mastered for vinyl.  Claudio Abbado conducting with the LSO conducting Le Sacre was a striking example.  In the late 80s this was the Le Sacre to beat.  I thought to 'improve' on that with the CD.  Fail.  The CD was crap.  Then just last year the Sydney PYT (pretty young thing) put out a fabulous album  (Don't Let the Kids Win).  I thought to myself 'Andrei, why don't you support the artist and get the LP as well?'  Feeling all noble I did just that.  The LP was crap.  Crappity crappity über-crap.  Forty bucks down the dunny.  The circle was complete and I am convinced the moral is the same.  In each case the original finished product was mastered for a particular medium.  Then the 'suits' get a cunning plan.  A plan so cunning you could pin a tail on it and call it a weasel.  They reissue the same music on a different medium but do no work - read spend no money - on making allowance for the different medium.

This is my long-winded way to say: it is a crap-shoot.
passet02's avatar
passet02
264 posts
 
Both those sources are dead its all streamers and internet
jayctoy's avatar
jayctoy
3,779 posts
 
We are bless with different format, if I feel I want to listen to vynil I spin my turntable, ithen cd or sacd, not streaming for now because, I have plenty of good record , sacd and xrcds.and K2cds.I try not to compare the analog and digital.
mts9
16 posts
 
This opinion comes from an audiophile with experience  in low cost entry level higher end equiptment...I currently own Acurus pre and amp...a yamaha new cd player, an AR ES-1 table on a vincent phono preamp..thru  excellent 80s refurbed Allison and AR speakers..At this level one can still get superior sound from both and i have but it all depends upon the recording engineer first...after that, the silence of a digital format is always more desirable over pops and clicks of vinyl during silent passages...In this day and age ,owning vinyl for me is more a vision thing...one of watching the beauty of a tone arm tracking a record  and a reminder of your teenage years!,,Honestly,i also use an audioengine D/A converter to my laptop and get as good sound as i need in a 10x14 room...The same held true when i owned and used  maggies in the same system....I found your more apt to marvel at the sound of a great analog recording on a quality table more than a CD player simply because there are more parts involved to pull this off....ie: tonearm,cartridge matching for perfect resonant frequency necessary for balanced sound,as well as a nice dampening suspension and isolation...because of these factors,when you get it right,the results ,all of these parameters considered  can be incredible  provided one uses a quality vinyl recording 
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