I have enough LPs bought when I was younger—Classical and New Age—to build a house. Now it is CD’s and cassete tapes out the wazoo. My opinion now? Vinyl beats them all on a very good sound system. Always the sound is richer and deeper on vinyl.
A short history of the CD vs Vinyl sound controversey:
(with facts taken from my memory so feel free to kibbutz and correct)
The main difference betwen cd’s and records are noise, dynamic range compression, and limited bass especially since it is generally mixed monophonically below 100 hz on records. Very rarely do records get mixed with bass below 40 hz(at -3db cut off reference) due do the tendency for needles to mistrack due to the extremes in the groove cutting at sub 30 hz frequencies, especially at maximum dynamic range.
Records themselves are generally limited to a dynamic range of 60 db though some early telarc digital discs(1812 overture) touted about 90 db though the subtle lower dynamics got lost in the vinyl noise and the cannon shots could cause the needle to jump out of its track unless you had a very high quality cartridge/needle set up.
Hence to overcome vinyl noise, soft sounds were made a little louder and loud sounds were made softer inorder to avoid distortion and needle mistracking. This limited dynamic range may sound quite musical and it was also faily simple to find a comfortable volume setting and leave it there. Rock music of course uses a limited dynamic range within 20 to 30 db between soft and loud passages with 60 db transients such as drum riffs, hence one could play rock moderatly loud without having to dash to the volume control as one might when listening to a symphony playing up to a loud stirring crescendo at a record’s maximum dynamic range.
Another point to consider regarding the musicality of records(a personal matter of taste) vs. CD’s is that because of the inherent vinyl noise and limitations of dynamic range especially in the ability to record bass, frequency equalization curves were developed to combat this issue. A number of different curves were in use before the RIAA curve was universally adopted in the late 50’s.(yes that RIAA which did fine audio engineering before they became a money grubbing, lawyer infested shell organization). It specified minimum hi fidelity frequency standards and later stereo standards and a wonderful sounding frequency optimization curve for vinyl recordings.
The frequency equalization pre-emphasis curves boosted audio high frequencies of audio recording while decreasing the recording’s bass frequencies on the master tape before the signal was sent to the cutting lathe. This allowed more “space” for music to be recorded on a record, hence the creation of the first long playing records with up to 35 to 40 minutes a side with careful cutting at 33 and 1/3rd rpm’s. Upon play back, a reverse RIAA “de-emphasis” curve was to be applied with higher frequencies dulled which restored proper treble balance while effectively masking much high frequency vinyl noise(think dolby NR on cassettes) while the bass frequencies were boosted to restore proper bass balance. Because of the problem of low bass rumble and infrasonics, the RIAA chose a 30 hz cutoff frequency at the low end so that low bass vinyl transients would not be enhanced and magnified upon re-equalization(hence the famous 30hz to 15000 hz RIAA frequency reponse curve, though later records would extend to 20khz)
Hence, the early recording engineers, developed musical recording techniques that sounded good to them, using electron tubed equipment, primitive oscilloscopes and their own ears and those of musicians and critics at the time. It isn’t any wonder, then that many records sound great, even very warm and musical, putting some CD’s to shame.
Yet records break down and are limited in musical storage. Even with archival quality care, they get scratchy. Musical transients, evident in snare drums for example are dull compared with CD’s and lasers don’t mistrack when the cannon on Telarcs 1812 overture are played. The newer high resolution digital recorders are breath taking in their sonics and even mixed down to 16 bits/44khz sampling(phillips/sony orange book) the music benefits greatly. It becomes more a matter now of mixing and production, the ear and the art get the highest attention in the new digital audio recording era...the limitations are gone. Even those rockers who claim that “tubes” are warmer get a benefit when they record digitally from their old “tubed amps” and there are even response curves purporting to mimic tube sound in use.
As for the old RIAA curves, they are no longer needed for CD’s and even higher resolution audio recordings; though when some of the first CD reissues of old albums came out the engineers forgot to compensate for the RIAA curves applied on the mastertapes. Thus these cd’s sounded bright and harsh and lacking in warmth and bass punch. Also when it came to new digital classical recordings, folks had a surprise coming to them in the form of enhanced 92 db dynamic range being played thru modest systems; people got frustrated in turning up the sound on low passages and sprinting to the receiver to lower the volume on louder passages. Bass was also cleaner and went down to 5 hz with out record rumble hence a lot of woofers got ‘woofed’ out of existence and some earlier amps burnt out as they couldn’t handle the transients. Frequency highs extended flat to 22k with no audible distortion. Yet cd’s don’t produce ear fatique as there is no vinyl rumble to tire the ears.
So in the end, it comes down to personal taste in terms of sound and personal needs such as storage and convenience. CD’s are noiseless but are high in resolution in dynamic range and frequency response. Records are mixed in ways that make the best of their their inherent limitations thus having their own unique warm sound and character that will sound different(even great!) even from a CD of the same given album and group (without the RIAA curve that is necessarily applied to the vinyl version). As for me, I’ll stick with CD’s.
PS: An interesting experiment would be to apply an RIAA pre-emephasis curve on to the analog imputs going into a digital recorder with analog de-emphasis applied at the home receiver pre-amp before going to the output amps, then the speakers. ( Most modern recievers and DVD/CD players have the means now to limit dynamic range to personal taste). It would be interesting to hear folks judgments on the sound quality.