Do CDs offer the best audio quality?

In my limited experience, they DO tend to be screamers.

They do for me, but I have an excellent DAC and CD transport.

Better than digital files or streams? Yes, most likely (there are variables). As good as vinyl if played on a high end turntable and sound system? No. Experts say the sound is "flattened" in CDs.

I chose several decades ago (early 90s?) to stay with the format... for a non-audio reason. I like/need the physical experience of the 3-D object. The colors of graphics. The kinesthetic experience of taking the CD in the player, putting it in, taking it out when finished. Early on I intuited that the digital world was delivering ease at much too high a cost. The science since that decision has only strengthened my views. The screens, the algorithms, the streaming of music I have not made a physical effort to choose... eat into us, change themselves to change us to obey them. Our synapses atrophy. Our attention is thinned. A.I. has only further destroyed our humanness. A good percentage of music now on Spotify/YouTub channels is not even real...

Had I been smarter though, I would have "stayed" with vinyl... because of the sound quality.

I agree with R3. Most true audiophiles prefer vinyl and have a good quality turntable and and excellent stereo system. I have a sizeable music collection, and while I play both CDs and records, the sound you get from a quality pressed vinyl is noticeably better than CDs, especially if you are listening to jazz or classical.

Best audio quality is LIVE. No matter what the format, there is no substitute for sitting in the hall listening

How about reel to reel tape, R3? Better, best?

CD is more accurate than vinyl. Great sound quality is all in the mastering. Humans can’t really detect higher frequencies in SACD and high-resolution digital formats.

Today’s vinyl is made from digital sources, hence the advantage of vinyl does not exist anymore.

When CDs were initially introduced in the 1980s, the sound initially seemed superior to vinyl records because at that time many record companies were pressing releases on inferior quality vinyl in order to to maximize profits. Also CDs are not subject to the hiss or the little cracks or pops you get sometimes with records. However I have numerous releases on CDs that I later purchased years again either on remastered pressings or 180G vinyl reissues, and they are obviously better audio than the CDs.

We know they do.

Some late 20th C high-end CD players and a few, very, (very!) expensive modern players have electronics that smooth out the harshness of CDs and produce sound - on good equipment - that is reminiscent of the best quality vinyl recordings played on high-end systems of the past.

Otherwise, the answer is no.

Any other opinions?

r12 No, that's probably enough, dear. We've had sufficient. What else are you hoping for?

I find CDs very cold. Singers, however, claim that the sound they hear when they sing is closest with CDs

R14, which singers?

8-Tracks rule bitches!

Vinyl produces analog sound and CD's are digital. It depends on your preference, they're both good.

However, ear drums are analog

[quote]which singers?

I've heard a number of opera singers say so.

Barbra loved CDs

R20 Because vinyl couldn’t handle the sonics of Somewhere being the last track on one side of the LP. The last tracks always sound the worst due to smaller grooves.

As someone who started collecting music right at the transition to CD, I ding miss vinyl’s surface noise, scratches, dust, etc.

Some of the initial transfers to CD were poorly executed, so the myth persists that CD/digital sound is harsh. Vinyl isn’t as accurate on the bass, so some people interpret that as a warmer sound. Some prefer the nostalgia and physical connection of vinyl, but digital sound is simply more accurate. That said, I doubt many of us can really hear the finer distinctions.

I still buy physical CDs, then rip them to my own media server. Sometimes, I’ll buy lossless digital versions, but it’s a last resort.

For my money, you get no better audio quality than with a pair of healthy, pointy ears.

My brother has been slowly rebuilding his music collection with CDs that he buys for a buck or two apiece. He likes that he can play him in his 2nd car (a reburbished VW Bug). I used to keep a collection of CDs, but now I stick to streaming or Youtube.

I'm R24, and realize I didn't answer OP's question: I prefer the quality of CDs over other formats.

CDS are digital music. 1s and 0s. Meaning you can store it as rip on a HDD and it will sound just as good RIps, aka MP3s,,ogg files et all were created to compress that digital music because space was a premium with early digital music players. Now you can stream lossless audio. CDs are dead.

Vinyl has a texture of sound that cd does not

cd a clarity that vinyl does not

My preference is vinyl

I still use an iPod Touch that I plug into an old Sony Dolby 5.0 surround system. It's the best of both (old) worlds that I still have access to

My collection is vast, I don't want to give it up. They will soon stop updating my iPod Touch.

Lately, I’ve been listening to Dolby Atmos remasterings of many favorite albums in my home theater which has ten excellent speakers and it’s amazing. Artists like Peter Gabriel and Laurie Anderson are doing some really interesting things these days.

Quite some time ago, listened through headphones LP and CD versions of Abbey Road. The LP stereo "picture" was blurry, the CD was rock-solid. Also LPs generate a lot of heat when they're pressed. This planet is hot enough.