What does music sound better on: vinyl or cd?

Bump

Dunno

Both

It's really preference. CDs are lossless, do have higher fidelity and you can adjust them with a PC. But vinyls have more warmth and texture. Skips on vinyl are more tolerable. On CDs they are irritating. Live instruments sound great on vinyl. But digital production sounds better on CD. Both formats are superior to cassettes and superior to streaming.

CD only because records scratched.

Nothing beats my gramophone!

Depends on the condition of the vinyl. If it's clean vinyl, then vinyl will sound better.

Neil Young bitched about digital (CD) a long time ago: digital reduces a range of sounds (that vinyl can differentiate) into one digit.

Most people say that vinyl has a warmth to the tones that cd/digital doesn't have.

I liken it to this - have you ever watched ultra high definition movies and tv and it looks too crisp and sharp? You see all the blemishes and makeup lines on closeups? That's CD/digitial. It's not the way people actually hear sounds. But, because it's not a perfect reproduction - it's just a program and microphone, it comes out too sharp in some areas and loses some distinctions in tones in others.

R7 He's not wrong. I think instruments sound better on vinyl. I prefer hearing jazz, new wave, disco, funk and R&B on vinyl. I think electronic music and modern pop sounds better on CD.

[quote] I liken it to this - have you ever watched ultra high definition movies and tv and it looks too crisp and sharp?

I know what you're saying, but I think that's the opposite analogy. Digital (CD) reduces "definition."

I wonder when music first started to be recorded digitally.

Records sun great. its all just a substitute for live though. go to the orchestra or church or the local blue grass show if you want to hear real music.

The best audio experience is 24-bit 192 kHz FLAC with a good pair of headphones.

R11 the early days of digital recording of music date back as far as the 1930s and 40s. But it wasn't until the CD began making traction in the 70s that digital recording became a possibility. Digital audio workstations, the standard now, came around in the 90s.

Cd.

Vinyl

Both sound the same

Bump

Virgil Fox the organist, was the first major recording artist to record in digital; this was sometime around 77-78. Billy Joel's 52'nd Street cd was the first CD distributed nationally to record store chains. There are no digital recordings of Elvis or John Lennon.

R18, thanks for the info!

Cd. No question.

Doesn't vinyl break very easily?

It also melts easily too. I learned this in my younger days when I brought my entire Kiss album collection over to a friends house and left it sitting out on their porch for a bit while we played.

What is the oldest CD anyone has that still plays/sounds the exact same as when you first got it?

Madonna never did analog recordings

For classical, vinyl

R25, why?

It's a tie

Cd.

What kind of dumbass posts this shit?

Cd of course. That’s why they were made.

Op lives in a toilet as an unflushed turd

Only pretentious douche cunts say vinyl.

I personally prefer the sound of vinyl, it’s warmer.

I like to he sound of a wet turd passing out of my asshole

Not sure

.......

Delish

Cassette

8 track

Cd.

Live

All.

R23, the first ones I bought are about forty years old now and sound fine. Over the years I’ve had a few cds bronze due to a manufacturing flaw, but I was able to copy them, so they hadn’t really decayed.

R43, good to hear. Gives me hope that mine will last a long time.

My car has an MP3 player - I don't know if it's that or the speaker system, but music sounds incredible in there. It's a Jaguar with a Meridian audio upgrade (not my choice, I bought the car second-hand), and it's like being at a live venue without crowd noise.

[quote]Most people say that vinyl has a warmth to the tones that cd/digital doesn't have.

Does this apply to new vinyl prints made from digital sources? Don't think so.

I can't see popular music from the late 90s sounding good on vinyl due to the switch to digital production and autotune. Most popular vinyls are for rock bands and jazz artists because of the instrumentals.

Is there really that big of a difference between vinyl and cd?

Can't tell the difference

I think the sound system you're listening through is what makes the difference.

To me, clean vinyl sounds warmer. But Vinyl scratches easily. It also depends on the system and speakers you are using. Cd is a little tinier. I have listened to both side by side and vinyl sounds a little better.

R51, what do you mean by "clean" vinyl and that vinyl sounds "warmer"? Just wondering.

Clean vinyl means no scratches. Vinyl scratches easily and you to take very good care of it. I think what I mean by warmer is that it has a richer deeper sound. I don't know if that really describes it but I know it when I hear it.

^^^ you have to take very good care of it.

On the other hand, you can play with equalizers to help the sound that makes it sound better. I think CD can sound tinny I always had to play with the sound. I had an expensive Sony walkman and the sound on that thing was phenomenal. It was just as good as listening to Vinyl. the other problem with vinyl besides scratches is dust. Dust can alter the sound on vinyl.

R53, thanks for the explanation

[quote]Vinyl scratches easily

I have records since the 1960s that have no scratches, some with scratches so small they don't change the sound. You people must be pigs throwing vinyl records around and piling them on the floor outside of the jacket.

Cd.

I listen mainly to the music I ripped (ALAC) from my CDs to a series of hard drives. I have nice computer speakers from Bowers & Wilkins, and overall, it's satisfying. I've had tinnitus for a number of years, and it's nice to listen with the speakers so close to my head.

I didn't get rid of any CDs, however, so I play them on a regular stereo sometimes, too. Sometimes I do want a more room-filling sound.

I had a record collection, but I found I hated the surface noise sometimes present on even the nicest looking classical vinyl. And new pop LPs can sound so bad, I wondered how someone had the nerve to sell them.

Why do some people think new vinyl sounds bad? Just wondering

CDs because they have more warmth and quality

When did CD's first become popular?

[quote]Why do some people think new vinyl sounds bad?

Surface noise.

[quote]When did CD's first become popular?

The first CD players came out in 1982, I believe. I became aware of them in 1985, and started buying CDs in 1986. At the time, LPs or cassettes were still the dominant format. I would guess it was 1989 or '90 when CD became the dominant format; someone else may know better.

They both sound good, but I prefer vinyl to CD. There is a more organic sound quality to vinyl that is hard to describe. Plus there is something sensual about taking the record out of the sleeve, holding it in your hand and placing it on the turntable.

Music with large dynamic range (like jazz or orchestral music) sounds much better on CD. First, there's no noise from the needle on the LP, but mostly, they have to compress the signal when mastering the LP to prevent the needle from skipping out of the track in loud sections, so LPs never have the full range of volume of live performances. It doesn't much matter with pop music, which is highly compressed to begin with, but any live performance will sound better on a CD.

Dunno

Cd.

Banjo

For those saying CD, why?

R69, see R65.

The reason I like CDs - you don't have to flip them over to play the other side.

THREAD CLOSED

I love vinyl. Deeper, richer. “Warmth” is a good way to describe it. The bass feels genuine.

Audio is the best

Cd.

That's a tough one

[quote]Skips on vinyl are more tolerable. On CDs they are irritating.

I don't think I've ever heard a CD skip.

What physical form of music came after CD...?

Cdss

Vhs

whenever I hear the notion that vinyl is superior.... my mind goes back to the 90s .......... and ALL of the back catalog that was reissued and cleaned up for digital release due to the goldmine cds were making for the labels. Stuff that was so rare and expensive ...... pre internet...very hard to locate suddenly was out there. Soundtracks, Worldbeat, all the vintage rock and country.... none of that would be out there if it weren't for the compact disc format. I just was listening to those David Byrne Brazilian compilations, I hadn't heard of any of those artists back in the 80s..... that to me is what makes CDs so great. And now they are so cheap and easy to replace.

Vinyl. Yes, it’s warmer but it also feels like a more authentic listening experience. It’s more raw and unpolished.

Case in point: if have a copy of Strangers in the Night, the 1966 Frank Sinatra album, turn up the volume at the end of the title track. You can hear him belt out, “beauuuuuuuuuuutiful!” When it came out on CD that was removed.

What's the difference?

Vinyl sound so much warmer but it’s inconvenient and gets too much dust and static

Both have their strengths and weaknesses

I just bought a new classical CD. Chamber music. If it were on LP, it would get scratchy, scuffy, and probably already be static-y, assuming I could even have bought it new in 2022. I bring all of this up because I can already tell it's a disc I'm going to play a lot.

I gave up on LPs when I brought home a spectacularly new-looking recording on LP of Mahler's 3rd Symphony conducted by Sir George Solti. It crackled from beginning to end on side one. I didn't play any more of it (4 sides). It wasn't the only LP that sounded so bad.

I have stuck to CDs since then. I don't play them on as revealing a system as I did LPs, and I am much happier this way. I listen to the music, not the equipment.

What sounds better than vinyl AND cd?

The thing about CD is, 16 bits are enough to replicate music perfectly IF the recording engineer properly "centers" the amplitude to take full advantage of those 16 bits, without going too high & clipping.

If the recording level is too low, it turns into de-facto 15, 14, 13, 12, or fewer bits... which sounds "rough".

If the recording level is too high, it clips... which is just inexcusable.

18-20 bits gives you a little more wiggle room to under-shoot without degradation. 24 bits is pretty much ideal for mastering, but overkill for distribution. As Telarc observed 30 years ago, 16 bits is enough to span whispers to cannon blasts IF you equalize the levels perfectly. 24 bits just gives you the headroom to capture it with completely wrong levels at recording time & remaster it perfectly to 16 bits for a CD.

R86, there are lossless compressed digital formats (like FLAC) that sound better than either LP or CD.

Yes.

Can you get FLAC in physical form?

I have a number of half speed mastered vinyl albums. They have an incredible sound and you can really tell the difference.

Lost

SACD

The harmonica

CD. I don't have any vinyls, but I remember my parents did when I was young and they sounded all crackly.

Cd all the way

Co.

I find classical music sounds best of records—CDs are too cold and emotionless. Records have warmth to the sound—hard to describe.

But records are totally inconvenient.

The sound on my CD of Hello Dolly sounds like it's being played through a washing machine

r98, Don Dorsey begs to differ.

Eins zwei drei vier!

Neither

8track

1) It seriously depends on the recording; certain analog stuff does sound better on CD due to how it was mastered.

2) American vinyl, especially in the 80s, was super sketchy sounding and of craptastic quality, vinyl wise (any MCA product especially); the newer, higher-grade vinyl being pressed (usually small or limited runs) is infinitely superior to most anything shy of Mobile Fidelity vinyl.

As a former record store geek ('83-'87), to see these affected pretentious twits paying top dollar for shitty vinyl warms my cockles, and makes me sad that i parted with over 3000 pieces of it.

Vinyl generally sounds "warmer" but I wouldn't necessarily say better.

Highly recommend blu-ray audio for those who have a blu-ray player.

r103 has a point. A well-mastered CD from a 24-32 bit 192kHz master will sound better than any conceivable LP... but... a thick 12" 45rpm record made from that same master... or even metal cassette tape with Dolby-C... won't really sound that much worse.

1970s & early-80s LPs sounded worse than they really HAD to.

Hell, just look at any early-90s color TV. Broadcast NTSC looked awful, and VHS looked even worse... but 720p to 480i over s-video, and 720p to 540i over Scart, looked SO much better, it's hard to believe it was even the same TV.

Long before I had an actual HDTV, I had HD cable boxes whose 480i s-video output (for HD content) looked WAY better than the output to the same TV from a "normal" box. With the HD box, I got "dvd-quality" s-video. With a SD box, my eyes felt like they were going to bleed from looking at the pixelation & weave artifacts.

Opera

Cool

"I don't think I've ever heard a CD skip."

Trust me, the early CD players definitely suffered from this problem.

They couldn't even have "discmans" until they found a way around the issue.

It was worse than they way record players skipped before someone figured out you needed to weigh down the stylus.

Even my portable cd player in the early 00s skipped. It was definitely a thing.

[quote] "I don't think I've ever heard a CD skip."

[quote]Trust me, the early CD players definitely suffered from this problem.

Now that you mention it, my very first CD player, a $59 Technics cheapie in 1986, skipped when I placed CDs on it just above the drawer.

The portable ones, well, I can see why they'd skip. I had a nice Sony Discman in 1991, around $200. I never took it anywhere. I couldn't walk across the room with it. I just used it at my desk at work.

Compact Disc hands down!

Music sounds better on COKE!

Neither