Vinyl outsells CD AGAIN! Has the world gone insane?
Comments on this video
You can comment on this video at YouTube
You can comment on this video at YouTube
Wednesday March 27, 2024
David Mellor
David Mellor is CEO and Course Director of Audio Masterclass. David has designed courses in audio education and training since 1986 and is the publisher and principal writer of Adventures In Audio.
@POEMS466: In a world of utter madness one must be at least a little mad to make sense of it all.
@Jeff-gi6dh: My opinion (I am a "Boomer") is that young people...Gen Z...millennials...have a sort of ex-post-facto nostalgia for something they never actually experienced, namely, "VINYL"! Or as we of a certain age called it: LPs, or records, or disks. My Gen-Z grandson LOVES "vinyl." I am constantly annoyed and speechless when it comes to the love of this antiquated format! My 40-year-old CDs sound identitical today to the way they sounded 40 years ago--actually, better, since I now have superior audio equipment! The only nostalgia I have is for the artwork on the original LP jackets. I have no nostalgia for the time and expense of keeping my records playable by cleaning them (Discwasher) before each playback, cleaning the cartridge/stylus, and then putting up with the inevitable clicks, pops, scratches, distortion, inner-groove distortion, of commercial recordings. I was overjoyed when the compact disc came into being, and I've never looked back. Nostalgia? I leave it to the hipsters who love typewriters.
@donjohnstone3707: The audio world has gone insane, as a result of the new digital age, increasingly replacing the technology of the pre-digital analogue world and creating a clash of the old ways of doing things with the new ways. That clash is highlighting divisions between old tech traditionalists and new tech progressives, while creating a new breed of audio technology, the "hybrid" (mixing old tech with new tech) or something completely different. Now there are many different types of audio tech and ways of consuming audio content, fighting each other for market share and generating all the confusing, self serving hype that goes with it. No wonder people are going crazy, with many looking backward and clinging to what is familiar to them (Vinyl, valve amps, vintage style speakers etc.) for comfort in nostalgia and a false sense of security, as digital streaming is largely taking over the world.
@billstill1794: NO - YOU ARE MAD! Vinyl has a much warmer and real sound that CDs lack and I collect both! Vinyl is NOT inferior in ANY way! I love the crackle of vinyl playing - even better sounding on used vinyl playing on an all-in-one unit Jensen player! Sorry but you're an outdated and dying breed, dude!
@gingernutpreacher: Its a bit of fun you old gits
@MrSlipstreem: I think any knowledgeable person would only buy vinyl instead of CD if the vinyl version is known to have come from a significantly superior master and they have a turntable and RIAA preamp good enough to leverage that advantage. Unfortunately, gullibility seems to be the driving force behind the recent resurgence of vinyl.
@johnorourke1636: For me it’s definitely the compact disc even though I was reluctant to move over to it back in the early nineties. This was mainly due to relative cost at the time. I have been streaming for a couple of years now too and have been able to explore a lot of new music this way.
I haven’t owned a vinyl player for about 15 years and it sat idle for a couple of years before that. I’m too accustomed to being able to hear bass lines easily and things like that.
I did consider buying a turntable again just to play the small collection of LPs that I still have but decided against it. I would have been buying it for the wrong reasons and it would soon become a dust collector. I’m going to spend the money on a subwoofer and some CDs instead. 😊
@knockshinnoch1950: It's all down to marketing and clever PR/Product placement in movies and TV dramas. The hipster detective playing his jazz albums on his cool turntable- dropping the stylus from 10 feet onto the poor vinyl record.
Every time I see young kids buying vinyl to take home and play on their cheap portable record player- it's insane.
Influencers also have a major role in promoting the vinyl con.
@JerryWCarman: I absolutely can't figure out why vinyl outsells CDs. It makes absolutely no sense. CDs sound a whole lot better, and cost a whole lot less than vinyl. Maybe someday folks will get some sense.
@DorianPaige00: Companies are not putting some new titles on cd. The reverse happened in the early 90's where labels weren't putting Lps and 45's out there except for select markets.
@jeremyaguilar3805: I have an analogue set up in my home office and I love it. I mostly listen to 50’s - 70’s rock, old jazz and classical music and I have zero complaints!
@memcdm: Why are folks buying any CDs or "records" when you can get any style of music any time of day and
complete concerts via the Net? I have 1200 CDs and 400 vinyl albums. Yet. In the last year or so, i listen to music more ours via YouTube and TuneIn. I can listen to any style of music any time of day i want. I can ask Alexa to play tunes from a particular artists or any style as well. I can listen to so-called HD tunes via a host of different apps. I listen to a new or old favorite CD some and a faborite vinyl album occasionally, but the tunes via internet dominants my listening time. I still by CDs but no vinyl given their costs. The pain of caring for vinyl and the playback systems (i have 2 turntables after selling one) takes the fun out of looking at the art work.
@TrainsAndWellbeing: I came close to buying a vinyl disk recently when looking for an obscure track that I couldn't find on and streaming or download service. I would have probably only played the thing once to record onto my Mac then put into Apple Music with everything else. Fortunately I was able to find an even more obscure compilation CD with the track so bought that instead and imported in lossless (ALAC) into Apple Music through my Apple SuperDrive ultimately resulting in less hassle. there are a few other CD's I have but only where downloadable options never existed.
@jhuc2869: Vinyl is the superior post apocalyptic archival medium.
@alex1520: It's the young hipsters..... some hipster says something cool and then it spreads like wildfire.... I grew up with both vinyl and tape. As a listening format, I don't miss turntable rumble, pops and clicks from scratches and dust at all.
@msingh1932: So, in gist...to each his own. I truly enjoy the Master's sense of humor.
@JJ-qs9hu: Many stores in the US don't carry CDs anymore and the ones like Target and Walmart have about 10 to 20 titles to choose from and only get like 5 copies. Physical media isn't a huge thing to the youth so and those who do want it buy vinyl for the in thing of the moment. So I myself mainly buy Vinyl over CDs because I prefer the old sound and the big picture. I was an 80s kid and it's more of nostalgia. I do listen to my vinyl often. I still own around 450 CDs and maybe about 5 are from the last couple years. Because the artist or label never got it pressed on vinyl or couldn't because Swift had dibs that week . Buy whatever you like an stop criticizing the fact vinyl keeps outselling a format that died a decade ago. They might make a comeback like vinyl did, but I wouldn't hold my breath.
@Nichtmoslem999: i guess, that the loudness war still continues in CD Mastering and so on .... they will buy LPs ...
@ARJIT-lf3po: oh christ I guessed Led Zeppelin 🚷🚷🚷, I need Jesus
@ARJIT-lf3po replies to @ARJIT-lf3po: until I heard 'Taylor Swift'
@synapticflow: Yes the world has gone insane. We need Jesus!
On a smaller scale it is ridiculous that a noisy, click prone medium would outsell CDs unless you just love the medium and the nostalgia of it.
@comicmania2008: Each to their own, to me, it depends on how and where you like to listen to music. I buy second hand vinyl records only these days - average price eBay £7.99, I also buy 2nd hand cassettes - average price eBay £4.99, I haven't bought a CD for years! I sacked Spotify Apple iTunes and Amazon Prime, as the media dies when you die, and you don't get a song sheet or anything physical to own after you buy the media. Experimenting with my cassette recorders, I found I can get a decent enough quality sound, living with a slight hiss on playback. My records after cleaning them also sound pretty clean, albeit with clicks and the odd pop. After my boomer ears have 'developed' over the years, I can't detect many flaws like I used to anyway. Been listening to Blondie and Skorpions tapes this afternoon in the garden through a BOSE sound bar, sounds great to me, just as good or better than a portable radio in fact!
@AudioMasterclass replies to @comicmania2008: Bar me forever from the audiophile fraternity, but I've heard Bose systems that sound good. I'll shock everyone in a future video.
@leatherbearuk: If you look at the actual figures you’ll find it’s not true. By units sold CD outsells vinyl, often by a huge amount. What you’re reading is sales by revenue. What led me to question the ‘narrative’ (to use a fashionable buzzword) was some news about Peter Gabriel’s new album reaching no.1 in the UK. CDs outsold vinyl 4 to 1, and vinyl sales were higher than downloads. So I started to look at the figures. It’s ‘misinformation’.
@razzman2987: 😅😅 Brilliant
@LordWaterBottle: With how cheap digital storage has become(there are 32BG SD cards sold directly by Amazon for $7 and 64GB cards from Best Buy for $11.), I would love to see a new chip-based physical audio format. It needs to play without an internet connection or DRM, needs to be at least as durable as an SD card (preferable more so), likely without moving parts for playback. It would ideally be small enough to be space efficient compared to CDs or Cassettes, but needs to be large enough to still feel like a "tea ceremony" like physical formats of the past, maybe about the size of a GameBoy Advance cartridge. It needs to cost the same or less than CDs, but have 24 bit .flac or .wav files that can be easily copy/pasted to any computer with a simple USB cable, no DRM. All it really needs to do to succeed is to market itself as a better way to support artists than streaming while actually owning your library. People want ownership again.
@Helenography0741: can we go by which thing is less a resource / environmental suck? solar farms in deserts for servers doesn’t seem okay.
reecords: it’s just fun but hmm i am getting sick of the static sounds. even if grounded to receiver, receiver grounded to outlet. but prob still doing something wrong lol i’m unclear if stylus is set up correctly.
@Uit-de-oude-doos: I'm getting a bit fed up with the discussion wich format is better.
First of all these are two different formats and just can't be compared with each other.
Then the discusion, yeah but cd is digital and the sound is so much worse than vinyl, for those people, buy a good DAC and run your cd player through an amp, the end product has nothing to do if it's digital or not but the way the engineer produced the product.
CD is digital? the only digital part is what's on the disc, the zero's and ones, every CD player has a DAC inside wich turns the signal from digital to analog, so if you put on a cd what you hear is analog sound .. period.
Than the advantages .. vinyl is always a compromise between audability and listening pleasure, vinyl can sound just as good or bad than cd, depends on many reasons like wear, bad production skips, scratches etc.
CD has no compromise, either the laser reads the zero's and ones or it reads none, in that case it will always drop out or skip that part of the disc.
CD is although I love vinyl THE number one format for me, no clicks, no inner groove distortion, no turntable rumble just pure music.
I wish every sound engineer would mix the music without any loudness or at least just a tiny bit to bring up the sound, we had the loudness war from 2000 and on and that is mainly why people ditched the cd over vinyl again.
Any good produced mixed final product on cd will always outrun vinyl.
Last, if you are a vinyl only lover, great .. buy vinyl .. same goes for cd.
I'm a music lover and looking for the best end solution, sometimes it's vinyl sometimes it's CD .. it all comes down on personal taste in the end.
@fredashay: Some people just like media that wears out a little each time you play it, and like hiss and pops and clicks and rumble and poor channel separation and poor dynamic range and distortion and wow and flutter in their music.
And since you ask, my favorite media is CD because I like to own physical copies of my music, or else be able to purchase and download non-DRM copies of music when possible.
@AudioMasterclass replies to @fredashay: This is why young people like their phones to have cracked screens.
@middleman9183: If I buy an all analogue 'one step' vinyl record, mastered by one of the best engineers in the world, why would I want to listen to something that has been converted to a digital file??
@michaelbadger9352: I buy vinyl and cd. You are right, I suspect that my vinyl is pure nostalgia. However I enjoy it. I have a reasonable audio set up but suspect an audiophile would probably die laughing. Secretly (although not a secret for much longer) I prefer the sound of my CDs. However some of the earlier CDs I have, say those produced in the 80s don’t sound as good as some of the remasters. There are always exceptions though as some of the remasters are terribly loud and send me scurrying for the volume switch before the neighbours come knocking. In the end my mood determines what I will play, if interactions the order of the day it will be vinyl. If I want to set and forget cd every time. Oh yes, I stream as well but only when travelling.
@Gez492: Why does so much music on CD sound crap then..can we have a label to say if the CD has been wrecked by compression
@AudioMasterclass replies to @Gez492: Better still, two versions, one wrecked, on unwrecked.
@Gez492: I like both. Both have strengths and weaknesses
@trumptardtearcollector9867: When I was a teenager we would order vinyl from the record clubs like Columbia and then use them as a master and dub them down to tape so we could listen to them in our car and take them on the Go and when the tape wore out we could redoubt it from our vinyl. However as soon as CD's came along we replaced the vinyl with CD's and use them as our masters I kept listing cassettes because you didn't have CD players in cars yet
@AudioMasterclass replies to @trumptardtearcollector9867: This was a common thing to do, and very sensible.
@tones4073: Vinyl is outselling CD almost 3 to 1. RIAA figures by format 2023. The sales volume for the CD format equalled 37.0M. The sales volume for the LP/EP format equalled 43.2M.
@Rockstaralan replies to @tones4073: No, vinyl ISN'T outselling CD's - at least not per unit so much as dollar amount. Meaning that current vinyl releases are priced up to THREE TIMES higher than their CD counterparts. So, they might be selling the same or even less units than CD's, but the cost factor leads everyone to believe the fairytale myth that they are "outselling" discs. And I say this as a lifelong lover of vinyl!
@ValentinDona: The reason of this madness is simple. Many CD-s are worst mastered as the vinyl versions. Dynamic compression at 9 LUFS, instead of 16-19 LUFS on vinyl, clipping, and so on.
@j-sonquarc1507: I prefer FLAC files. There were times when I was silly enough to buy them in 192kHz quality. As my hearing degraded I converted them down to 48kHz to save space on the drive, which is okay because 48 fits evenly into 192, which again is not the case with 44,1. SoX, dither, … Well, yes. And I listen to them on a Linux System with an industrial standard audio chip that can handle files up to 384kHz. Anyway. Nowadays I buy FLACs in CD quality. Still kind of a waste. My speakers are a Chinese 2.1 combo and don't go above 20kHz. My left ears cuts of at 11, the right at 12kHz, I'm afraid. But the feeling I get from hearing music does not depend on reproduction quality. It comes from the music.
@richgrao: I grew up with vinyl and was thrilled when cds came out. No more clicks, pops, skips, sticks, flipping sides, etc. at first I thought the resurgence of vinyl was a nostalgia thing, like mullets, but it keeps growing. I hear the usual “analog is better” BS. I put that up there with $1,000 cables. If your stats are right, it’s not Boomer nostalgia either. I just think it is hype. Audiophile reviewer hype extolling vinyl, and the artwork, and, well, whatever, other stuff they throw at the wall. Marketing hype by labels, as they have found a way to make more money of the same unit sale.
I’ll stick with CDs and high quality streaming, thanks.
@humoursque8447: Vinyl collections can cause a fortune and not to mention turntable and catridges. The wait for your vinyl when therevare unavaliable in your local music shops. Pay a fortune for delivery. Can't stand the clicks and pops from vinyl. How about the warps and the care required. Any vibration could cause the arm to jump and skip. The storage is a hassle and taking up space. Don't spill drinks or ashes when you are a bit intoxicated. The cd is so convenient and easy to play. Ahhh the quietness and remote to control the songs. There are very affordable and many in 2nd hand market for a song. The song quality is very good especially well recorded cds. You can burn a copy and downlload from YT for very little for own use. There are transportable and the choice of genres is unlimited.You put in rubbish and it comes out rubbish. Can't justify spending thousands on hifi uf you playing a few old time jazz, blues, ballads and worse of all pops.
@JanPatrickLucas: Very enlightening Sir. You are bang on! I want vinyl to win. I want it to sound better than cd, but it does not! Yes, sound "better" is subjective. From an audiophile's perspective who is seeking the highest fidelity, cd is supereior. I've uprgraded phono preamps, cartridges, styluses, and entire tables etc., several times over trying desperrately for records to surpass my Marantz sa-10 cd player. At times certain audiophile pressings, generally 2lp versions, have perhaps sounded marginally "better" but we're talking way less than 1%. This is based on my own experience of course. I still buy vinyl, and very often both cd and Lp's for artists I'm big on. If I want to enjoy vinyl and lie to myself that it's better, I'll set up my Wharfedale Linton's rather tham my higher end spearkers. The Lintons marvel with vinyl. So then it's the spearkers not vinyl right? Well with those I tend to want to listen to vinyl more. Something about the combination. Some higher findelity speakers I have, simply don't sound good with vinyl... Bottom line is I'm tired of hearing undeducated, inexperienced people claim that vinyl is the ultimate in sonic playback. I'm an audiophile, music lover, and have purchased physical media forever. I do not stream. I've bought and listened to all formats, and can confidently claim that cd is the highet quality, most reliable, purest and most consistent. I've witnessed the little girls and parents in the record stores gushing and rushing over Taylor Swift Lp's, to run home and play it on their Crosley junk table...I shake my head and think how mislead they are, and how ridiculous it is. I'm not a Taylor Swift fan either. I don't get what all the fuss is about. I don't think she's that talented, nor do I think the music is all that good. I'm 53 though, so I suppose I'm just getting to be, or am an old geezer lol. I'm just as foolish and guilty though, I guess, becasue I'm still buying vinyl myself. I keep thinking I'll make an adjustment to my system which will finally bring the vinyl to new heights... I suppose it's not just about the sound quality, though, either as discussed here. Yes, there's definitely something attractive about it aside from it's sonic property. I just can't quite put my fingert on it...? Ha that's it! I'll correct myself and say that I can put my finger on it! Nice to have those big covers and records in the hands... Cheers!
@RagedContinuum: I bought 3000 cds and don't listen to them
am I wrong?
@AudioMasterclass replies to @RagedContinuum: You can enjoy having a collection. No harm in that if you have the money and space.
@fernandofonseca3354: I could easily take the bus carrying 10 vynil LPs plus my uni notepad under my arm... now try doing that with 10 CDs...
Ah yes nowadays no one takes notes at uni anymore... 🤣🤣🤣
@-vanveenjf7550: love your ranting don't let the cat out of the CD case (bag) I'm enjoying also many great recordings on CD. mostly around $1 or 2 bucks a pop. only regret is I have sold my LP too early
@Mentski: The only people who really needed vinyl over any digital format in the last 30+ years, and are probably solely responsible for keeping the vinyl market afloat for those years and kept the presses going before this current day boom - DJs/Turntablists - moved to digital years ago as soon as companies like Denon and Pioneer made hardware that allowed them to manipulate digital audio in realtime as required. I certainly wouldn't go back to lugging multiple heavy milkcrates now my entire setlist fits in my pocket on a usb stick.
@richardhancock6235: Despite Miss Swift being one of the richest people in the world her record label will not include any of her martial in discount or sales. I listen to Vinyl and lossless streaming. The sound quality of lossless streaming is of course vastly superior to vinyl, however what it doesn't supply is the ritual. Going into a record store with it particular smell and look. Spending an hour flicking through creates in the hope of finding some treasure, then taking the album home pouring a good single malt, removing it from the sleeve cleaning it, firing up the turntable and then siting back listen to the music, admire the album art, reading the sleeve notes an sipping the whiskey. Then when finished putting the album in a transparent sleeve and filing alphabetically or by genre on dedicated shelves knowing you now physically own a little bit of music history. That's why I still buy and listen to vinyl.
@dischiesoda6955 replies to @richardhancock6235: One can do the same with CDS. I do, and I reaily enjoy doing it.
@Tinman2809 replies to @richardhancock6235: Some of us did all that in the 60's and 70's....because there was no alternative ! The enlightened have now moved on......
@anonamouse5917: Since you asked...
All my CD's have been ripped using EAC
I use Audacity to separate the tracks and correct the heads and tails of the tracks.
Then I volume adjust all tracks to -24dB LUFS save as 24 bit with no dither, and compress with flac.
Finally, they all go in my Strawberry jukebox.
@nyquist5190 replies to @anonamouse5917: Why do you have to separate the tracks? On my computer EAC rips the cds track by track by default.
@anonamouse5917 replies to @anonamouse5917: @@nyquist5190 You get better results if you do it manually. I've got Audacity keyboard shortcuts up the wazoo. I shorten/extend fadeouts if they effed up at the studio. It takes very little time. Sometimes I even fix indexing mistakes!
One of my CDs (British 80's compilation) had 25 seconds of silence between 2 tracks!
@anonamouse5917: Thanks a lot, loudness war.
An entire generation now has CDPTSD.
@oijans: I have only recently discovered your channel and have listened to a handful of your audio contemplation videos. I love having someone professional confirming my perception of the quality of audio equipment, production, transmission and listening experience. There's no need for people who don't have plenty of money to waste too much on too expensive devices that don't really produce better sound we are able to hear. It's very much like computer science, crap in - crap out or shit in - shit out. What you like when listening to your music is what is the most important. Fake marketing to boost prices is a scam in every field of technology. The best challenge to me is to find the best sound I like for as little money as I can care to pay. But we all get suckered into spending a little more than planned sometimes because feelings trumps technical knowledge once in a while.
@adotopp1865: There's a common misconception about this so called audiophile who's a vinyl hipster. Mostly I'd say its old blokes like me who started buying records and have kept the format and improved it slowly over the years. So today its a collection of records and gear and speakers.
@innovationsinm: Had an argument on Reddit with someone claiming to be an artist who was trying to push that vinyl was easier to sell at his gigs, and CD offers zero benefit over a digital streaming service. Tried to point out ownership and ability to play when the internet is down (thanks AT&T) but he was adamant that more people own record players now than the Token CD owners. I gave up and went downstairs and pulled a CD out of my wall collection and has a good relaxing evening. Can’t be bothered with idiots.
@AudioMasterclass replies to @innovationsinm: Judging from comments on this and similar videos, which may or may not be a reliable source of information, many vinyl buyers just want to have the object and may not even have a player. I doubt whether CDs have this level of collectability. But that's just my commenters talking.
@innovationsinm replies to @innovationsinm: @@AudioMasterclass I think you are totally correct in vinyl has become the status symbol. Oh, you listen to vinyl, you must be posh. BTW: Thankyou for all the great content you put out. I really get great enjoyment from your videos and find them totally entertaining and informative. Keep up the great work.
@AudioMasterclass replies to @innovationsinm: @@innovationsinm Your comment prompts me to reply that when I had ~700 boot sale vinyls (1000+ is a collector) it was more the case that I could listen to any of them at any time. Did I? Not often.
@innovationsinm replies to @innovationsinm: @@AudioMasterclass please tell me that is not true. I think I’m around the 1200 CD mark. Just as long as you don’t label me as an Audiophile it will be ok. You are correct in I don’t listen to everything, just figure it’s not worth trying to trade or sell off my collection as i bought all this music for either a certain songs, or perhaps it was that I liked other works by that particular artist. Being an artist myself, I don’t begrudge spending money on new music. Recently I’ve been buying on Bandcamp and just downloading the Flac file to listen to at my pleasure.
@AudioMasterclass replies to @innovationsinm: You're a collector. You're safe, for now. Fun story though - I saw a record at a boot sale last Sunday that I fancied. I could have had it for a pound or 50p but I thought I'd listen on Spotify later. You can probably guess the rest.
@jeffcline7689: My cassette copy of Hawkwind's Quark , Strangeness and Charm (taped on a K MART 3 FOR 99 CENTS BLANK) sounds better than the CD I recently purchased Charisma Record LTD 1988. Conversely my kerosene television with a paper clip for an antenna picks up satellite channels better than any cable vision.
@Music2Die4: People prefer what they prefer...... I personally get good results from both vinyl and CD..... The problem with vinyl is that CD will outperform it if the vinyl rig is not set up with the alignments fine tuned for optimal performance (tracking force, tracking angle, anti-skate, azimuth, level patter etc.)..... The problem with CD is that most playback rigs don't sound particularly good. (And the ones that do sound good don't seem to have a price correlation.)
Although I prefer vinyl over CD if the vinyl rig is set up to exacting alignments, such set up requires a learning curve and a working knowledge of the physics behind those alignments. And without the set up to exacting tolerances, or the experience to fine tune these alignments, then good CD playback will outperform vinyl playback.
@EE12CSVT: It's proof that people prefer to be seen to be cool rather than appreciate good sound
@Dangeruss82: Come on we all know quarter inch tape sounds best.
@AudioMasterclass replies to @Dangeruss82: Half inch tape sounds better. One inch tape for stereo is a thing. A rare thing but a thing.
@meredithharvan5632: sorry dud I did a "listen test- same song same time stamp using Vinyl , CD and streaming playing simultaneously and switching back and forth between formats- vinyl won - it was very close but you could hear it in the overtones in the ride and crash cymbals - in the backing rhythm guitar and in the nuances in the vocals. So who amI going to believe ? the experts or my own lying' ears?
@robertjermantowicz-uw3iw: LP's sound really good when played on my Ariston RD11/FR 29/ Coral B77 Sleeping Beauty mc cartridge into a custom stepup transformer/ RGR 4 preamp. Then a Sumo Andromeda 200wpc amp and DCM Time Window's!
@robertjermantowicz-uw3iw replies to @robertjermantowicz-uw3iw: Still have to get up every 20 minutes to change a side!
@robertjermantowicz-uw3iw: If CD's needed as much tweaking as LP's to sound really good audiophiles would like CD's more! The more hands-on a hobby is the more satisfying it is - witness plastic model cars, planes and ships! These have well-established fans!
@AudioMasterclass replies to @robertjermantowicz-uw3iw: I think you might be right.
@stratocat9999: I thoroughly enjoyed this video, as always! Lots of laughs, to be sure! And as a 'Boomer', it really was hilarious!
Personally, being retired from 30 odd years as a mastering engineer, I trend toward buying Hi Res tracks (96 or 192 Khz 24bit) as opposed to either a CD or LP. But I do still buy the occasional LP as it may the only way to get a particular mix or album.
No matter, any LP I buy is archived as 96 khz 24 bit (fully refurbed Technics SP15 wit the bog standard and vastly underrated Audio Technica ATP-12T).
I often buy the CD quality version of an album if no HD version exists, as I do not necessarily need the hard copy.
Then there is the 'legacy' of original pressings with 'that sound' which, again, I archive to Hi Res digital.
I'm the exception and I know it. I do not have a streaming subscription and no desire to have one. My library is large enough and I own it.
But for the rest, especially for new releases, to anyone that asks, I always suggest buying the CD over the over-priced LP if ownership is desired.
I have bought perhaps 'one' new LP, and that was a re-issue, in last 5 years. But I have been gifted some as well.
My thought is one day the younger vinyl/analog zealots may wake up one day and find they have been taken for a very expensive ride.
Will CD come back? I think so. There is already a resurgence in interest, but mostly in the used market, for now.
@AudioMasterclass replies to @stratocat9999: As a mastering engineer of a mature vintage, real music lovers and audiophiles would probably wish you would teach the young whipper-snappers a thing or two.
@stratocat9999 replies to @stratocat9999: @@AudioMasterclass 🤣
@lsmoulton: Taylor who ???🤔
@robertlakay88: Are modern day CDs still brick walled? I bought the 50th anniversary CD of Honky Chateau last year and to my surprise, it had more dynamic range than the 1995 remaster.
@Tyco072 replies to @robertlakay88: It is surely a singular case. Today is everything brickwalled, from streaming to file download. I buy many sinthwave tracks made by "bedroom musicians" and they are all brickwalled. At least the music and melodies are good.
@DavidMander-rs4uk: Why buy that inferior vinyl format when you can have the superior format of CD!! 😆👍
@sidesup8286: This is a very dumb forum I think. Vinyl at its best or even around its best, sounds better than any cd I ever heard. How many people commenting have ever owned a turntable and cartridge like I used to use, which would be the inflationary equivelent of $6,000 today? There are hundreds of lps, not just audiophile label lps, that make cds sound quite artificial and thin in the midrange. Cd players have more of an electronic character too, since the signal, instead of just going through 4 phono cartridge wires, have to go through over a hundred parts inside the cd player. Each one affecting the sound. Listen to some direct to dis crecord lps like old Sheffield Labs or even some of the better early Mofi records when they were all analog and made from master tapes. Listen to them on a well chosen 2 or 3K turntable of today and tell me that cds sound better. They obviously don't. They do sound good, but good does not mean better or even equal. They are fairly far behind. With my cd playback equipment that is the kind of stuff that people dream about, cds overall are not as far behind for sound quality, but there's just no way they equal really good lp pressings played on really great audiophile turntables. I listen to cds more, because its convenient and on my gear, they are close enough, but make no mistake, for sound quality anyone would be able to hear it is in this order.
1. Reel tape
2. Vinyl
3. Cd (on the better players).
4. Streaming
People who think cds sound better have never lived with the right vinyl playback equipment and preamp/phono stage. Otherwise they would change their tune. Because of price gouging however, I think now at present, cds are actually the way to go. If you are willing to invest in over $1,000 well chosen cd players. Less on the used market.
@Tyco072 replies to @sidesup8286: Pure falsity. It is another dumb belief of the vinyl lovers, that you need thousands of $ to appreciate a such primitive recording media. The reality is much more simple: any 50$ CD player deliveries more sound details than a 1000$ or 6000$ turntable, simply because vinyl mechanically can't store such fine details. The warmth of analogue is only added distortion. Do a test in a recording studio starting from the live sound, using a digital and an analog recorder. You will hear what is more close to the source. Digital wins. If you like more the analog "warmth" good for you, but don't call it fidelity to the original. And the correct order is:
1) Source sound
2) Digital master (or analog master if digital is not available)
3) CD (on any player) or hi-res lossless streaming (better if not clipped/brickwalled)
4) Vinyl (with long distance from 3)
@sidesup8286 replies to @sidesup8286: Re: your Youtube comment on this Youtube video and about my comments. . Sir, when is the last time you cleaned the dust off your diamond stylus with a stylus brush? Or do you simply blow a big puff of hot air at it from your mouth, like you just did at me? Have you ever even been in the same room with an over $10,000 Clearaudio Goldfinger phono cartridge or a Goldmund Reference turntable which weighs many hundreds of pounds. You can type in Goldmund Reference turntable Pics to see pics of it on the net. Nobody in their right mind would think that a $50 cd player could compete with the sound quality of something like that. Or probably a cd player of ANY cost. Of course all this is irrelevant as far as you are concerned; as you are not likely to be in a financial position to own the best equipment of either format; or any format. And it doesn't even take that level of turntable to beat digital sound; as good as digital sound can be. Your opinion of how good lps can sound is just a wild guess. Played on cheap junk, lps sound bad, but not as bad as cds played on cheap junk. If you think a $50 cd player can even come anywhere near good lps played on great playback gear; you yourself are about as accurate as the old newspaper whose front page headline read... DEWY DEFEATS TRUMAN FOR PRESIDENCY.. If you've ever sat at a grand piano and pressed the left hand keys, the amount of rich resounding warmth just fills the room & would astound someone like you. I have a vast cd collection, and likely twice the cd player you have, and never have I heard that accuracy of warmth from a cd. Only from lp and tape.I like cds too; but compared to vinyl and analog in general, cds are very stingy with warmth. Live unamplified music, like sitting at a grand piano is "The Absolute Sound". So even though each format has its advantages, your criticizing the warmth of analog is criticizing what real instruments sound like in real life. In other words; craziness! Musicians who can tell blindfolded (correctly)what model of vintage Martin acoustic guitar is being played, have perceptual skills far beyond yours, and they think analog does the better mimic of what real instruments sound like.
Vinyl has resolution down to a fraction of an angstrom; and with your lack of knowledge, I'm sure you don't know how small an angstrom is. Do look it up and see if your small mind can comprehend anything that small.
@Tyco072 replies to @sidesup8286: @@sidesup8286 A resolution of a fraction of an angstrom? That's really hilarious! I think you don't know how vinyl really works. But the bottle neck and the weak point on the prehistoric turntable/vinyl system is not in the cartridge. It is in the stylus/vinyl mechanical contact, mechanical inertial, and the plastic material. To spend 10000$ on a cartridge is dumb as 1000$ for a connection cable. As well 10000$ for a DAC (even 1000$ I would say)
I know the sound of a real piano very well, and I don't find at all it coming better from a vinyl than from any CD. And yes, even a 50$ CD player has a way better channel separation than any vinyl, lower distortion and lower noise. Better channel symmetry, higher effective dynamic range, and it gives the same audio quality in the 1st and in the last track. All parameters I am very sensitive to. The vinyl lovers evidently aren't sensible to those macroscopic flaws. All the rest is vinyl religion. Do the blind comparison that I and the user nicksterj suggested and tell us what is more close to the original. And you will see where the "warmth" you like comes from.
@sidesup8286 replies to @sidesup8286: A fraction of an angstrom is correct, for the resolution limit of vinyl, and that's from scientific study from scientists, not from little ol' me. And Science is by far, the best thing we humans have, to go by, not someone like you; who thinks or pretends they know how good vinyl is; playing it with toys, compared to those that have REAL vinyl playback equipment. But its not only Science that contradicts your blind guess/theories, it is many other things. Manufacturers of speakers selling for $30,000 a pair and upwards, often use vinyl to demonstrate at shows. If they didn't think vinyl sounded superior, they'd use digital. But they know the sophisticated, experienced listeners that are likely their potential buyers and dealers, if they used digital, they would hear the subtle electronic sounds like grain, edginess and thinness in the midrange that comes about from a signal that has to go through over 100 parts, inside a DAC and other circuitry before it metamorphises from digits back into sound. Digital even has missing frequencies because of filtering. A phono cartridge simply generates its signal and sends it out 4 wires. Simpler always sounds better and truer. Even if by some fantasy, all the 100+ parts inside a cd player were absolutely perfect. They're not; ANY of them. Vinyl doesn't have to take apart the music and re-assemble it again. If you had a $10,000 phono cartridge and some of the other stuff you make fun of, believe me, your cd player would see very little use.
It sounds like you are reaching for straws on the seperation thing. While its true that cd has better lateral seperation, vinyl's seperation is excellent too. For the more important front to back depth seperation and image height, many people prefer vinyl. Those who can play it back on something better than the"toys" that you are used to. Re: your Absolutistic statements on what is better. The smarter among us, know that is pure rubbish. There is so much out there. No one person has even heard 20% of it. When you say "something is superior" what you are really saying is that you've heard it all; because you'd have to have heard everything to make a statement like that. And we all know that is rubbish. You have your experience with what you can afford to use, and I have equipment of a much higher pedigree (almost certainly), and I have my more pertinent opinion. If you don't think vinyl sounds great, you obviously don't have very good equipment to judge. If you could judge!
As far as warmth, my vinyl playback has the same amount of warmth as the reel to reel decks I've owned over the years, from different manufacturers. Are they all "ERRORING" on warmth by exactly the same amount?? Another far fetched idea indeed. Analog doesn't cheat you on warmth.
@sidesup8286 replies to @sidesup8286: The comment I just wrote you, got taken off, because the Eric Idle look alike must remove anything that makes sense that contradicts his own opinion. What a forum this is. He looks pretty shaky too. He's another one who hasn't ever really heard anything, great analog wise. You making Absolutistic statatements like a King on what's better is ridiculous. You would have to have heard cd versus vinyl on the very best equipment to make any such statement; equipment that you are not likely to ever have. So to you, what's the difference what is better? Those of us who have great equipment have a much better idea.
@Cyrixxz: I recently bought a deck and a load of 60-70s vinyl. Mainly because most of the music i like is from that era and I wanted to hear what it would have sounded like back then, so I also built a class a amp for full effect and hooked it up to some 70s wharfdales. I decided to build my own phono pre-amp using the RIAA standards having bought one or two online an wasn't impressed and quickly came to realise that these filter stages have a huge impact on the sound. Since they are working like a tone control, changing the resistance values and capacitor values even slightly massively alters the filter response. I am now convinced that this is why people like vinyl, because the riaa filter stage used to reproduce the sound and the recording process combined makes it sound almost like turning up the bass and the treble and that is the case even when using the riaa standards and component values matched to meet those standards, i modelled it first and built the perfect riaa filter in sim but it still sounds to me like there is an EQ effect, its an appealing affect and i quite like the sound.
@jimbohnenkamp5082: Don't forget...there's an extra charge for vinyl noise, clicks and pops.
@ThomasTVP: People buy records and insist they're "superior" to CD, just like some people believe that the earth is flat. For the same reason: They're MORONS!
@Tyco072 replies to @ThomasTVP: And they claim that mp3 128kbs is comparable to CD quality
@AudioMasterclass replies to @ThomasTVP: Well yes you can compare it. CD is better, MP3 is worse.
@Tyco072 replies to @ThomasTVP: @@AudioMasterclass yes, but that many vinyl fans hold 128kbs mp3 as "not bad" and equivalent to CD quality, says all about their hearing capabilities :)
@Tyco072 replies to @ThomasTVP: @nicksterj My reply to your message has been deleted 2 times. I don't know whether it was by youtube or by AudioMasterclass. I try gain removing any reference to the external link. Generally for the most people 256kbps mp3 is more than enough, but for me even 320kbs can't replace a wav/FLAC file. On good tracks I can hear the difference also between the LAME and Fraunhofer codec. The differences are very small and sneaky, not always important, but there are. Not all the tracks are affected in the same way. The difference is more in the spaciousness, 3D sense in the background. I use the 320kbs mp3 only as secondary and occasionally listening on the mp3 player. For my HI-FI listening through PC I use only lossless. FLAC is only about double size of a 320kbs mp3. On PC the storage space is not a problem.
I don't know if through an online test it is the same effective as with the original files, but even with a cheap Logitec headset I have recognized all the files correct, except one, in an online test. I try to put the search keywords in a separate message, so at least this message should remain.
@A_RosnerNZ: Loving all the stereotypes - please keep doing what you're doing and never change :)
@Turbulator: For starters, isn't Vinyl almost three times as much as CDs per unit? So it's not outselling in units? Plus CDs are on the way out, whereas Vinyl is a fad, so it's not really a useful comparison. How does Vinyl, in units, compare to all digital forms of music available?
@marcdewolf7334: There are people who buy vinyl as an investment as a lot of releases are limited. They aren't even opened and sold for around 6 times what they spent originally. There are so many limited, numbered releases that are in demand. CD all the way for me and I was a vinyl collector before CD's were released.
@markdecker2112: I am of the rare breed still purchasing SACD whenever possible. The Atmos Blu-Rays starting to come out seem interesting. I don't purchase CDs anymore because my Qobuz subscription is good enough, and the rare vinyl i purchase is for special editions that contain all mediums.
@djtbs1: They are charging 2 to 3 times the price for Vinyl reissue as CD, so the $$$ shouldn't count as much as the # of copies.... but I buy physical media because who knows when they are going to revoke your digital rights.
@oscartango2348: I only listen to records made of "Walrus Ivory" pressed by Quechuan artisans from the mountains of Peru. I have to use a special stylus made from a zinc and copper mixture, running on my Thorens TD-125. That's right, I obviously can afford to be the selective audiophile that I am. I do this because I want to experience the music, not just listen to it.
@AudioMasterclass replies to @oscartango2348: I agree. This is why I only smoke cigars that are rolled on the naked thigh of a Cuban virgin.
@atoptip6193: A commenter says, “…vinyl manufacturing is a constant frustrating pain of poor quality control and battles to get an adequate product…” This is so true. I see pictures of “vinyl” cutting, in an unprotected environment, with people smoking cigs and who knows what else. Why? We live in an age — as we know from chip production — things could be made to perfection, probably also on a material less dodgy then “vinyl.” So why? I guess because it really is not the medium of the perfectionist. Buyers are hipsters, some of whom, as you say, just hang them on the wall. I suspect there are even dumber things people spend $1.7 billion on, like almond milk. Let us move on.
@brianhunt6851: David - why do you not quote actual unit sales? Surely they matter most to the public (if not to the industry)? It is a fact that CDs still outsell vinyl comfortably all across Europe. What are the actual sales figures in the USA and Canada?
@PrismApplied: I play cds and vinyl and I stream. Some releases sound better on vinyl. Some don’t. Live a little, don’t be so rigid. You might surprise yourself.
@yurodivy1: Three points: As you yourself have pointed out, vinyl mastering often has better dynamics than CDs. Second, disk rot is valid concern. A properly stored LP will sound great in 50 years ( some of us hope to still be alive then) a CD very possibly will not. Lastly, while the average CD sold today has better sound quality than the average LP, vinyl still has the potential to sound better if high quality digital files are used or if we're very lucky an all analog signal chain.
@9Dunk: As long as they keep making CDs, I'll go along with the LP resurgence. Why? It makes the CDs cheap.
As for why LPs are popular again? Most likely, it's marketing. CDs became popular because they were marketed as superior. Smaller, better sounding, more durable, etc. LPs are marketed in just about the opposite way. A nice, big album cover to look at, this "ritual" that enthusiasts talk about, and "warm" sounding with all the little crackles and pops (some even go a step further and talk about rounded sound waves instead of digital squared off ones... then my eyes glaze over).
I've also read a few things online (anecdotal) saying that labels are pushing for LP releases over CD. The $40 vs $13 price tag is why. PLUS, copying an LP is more difficult than copying a CD, both in terms of quality and time required. Therefore, copying is discouraged by practical means rather than just saying "DON'T DO IT!" PLUS, LPs can degrade each time you play it and can be damaged via regular use (bumping the turntable while playing, being careless and dropping the needle in the middle of a track, burping too aggressively, etc.). So, people would have to buy a new one if their first one is ruined somehow.
Companies are out to make a profit, and they will do whatever they can to maximize that profit. LPs seem to be the latest push by record companies to maximize their profit.
@keithandrewneal: I listen to vinyl, CD and cassette, the latter own recordings, very few pre recorded. I have a decent hi fi system and have a couple of thousand recordings over these formats. I have fantastic sounding vinyl, I have awful sounding vinyl, the same for CD and tape. I can usually tell if a latest rereleased vinyl album has been transferred from a digital copy. Its surely the music that matters most , but I can't listen to bad recordings. The guys who engineered and mastered vinyl were geniuses.
@MAB_Audio_Nut: Well I watched this video and was trying to figure out your point. People Love Records and most people really never loved CDs . Do CDs sound better than vinyl. Well sometimes they do and sometimes they don't I AB test volume matched all the time and some of the new Records sound better on my sytem than Streaming HD . why My Money is on my Phono Stage Cartridge TurnTable and comparing that to a Denon CD player or Node 2i Streamer. Somtimes the new Vinyl Pressings are bad and streaming easliy wins and sometimes the opposite. But All that has nothing todo with why records sell. Its the fun of collecting and having the albums in your hand or just there collectablity. The Taylor Swift albums are all collectable look on DisCogs and you will quikly see why people collect them. I also buy Albums to help out the Artists they make almost nothing from Spotify And I care about them. I'm a 61 year old male and I buy New albums quite often though I stream music all the time also or listen to streaming service radio stations which almost all sound horribale. My wife still likes to buy and play CDs she says its easier. So people are all over the place. The record companies are puching vinyl because thats where they are making money. It always comes down to conviencing people whats best that makes them Money. I buy some new records and many used records a lot of the music I listen to isn't avalable streaming and thus I buy the old records . There is a lot to it and I'm not sure why you even care. The best sound I have heard on my System was non of these but was from 2 differant sources direct DSD files through a Topping DSD DAC which was quite complicated to do and From Reel to Reel Tapes.
So those blew away CD and Vinyl
@imqqmi: Must be cheap record players with bluetooth to stream records to their phones or wireless headsets. The first record they buy is of course Taylor Swift, after a few listens they probably switch back to spotify and the record player sits in a corner collecting dust after that.
@angelfire2023: I think there is an even larger question here. Who in their right mind is buying this on tape? The option is there on the amazon page, so clearly someone is.
@dtz1000 replies to @angelfire2023: Tape is probably better than CD in a similar way to vinyl.
@dtz1000 replies to @angelfire2023: @nicksterj I don't know enough about tape to say for sure, but if tape can reproduce ultrasonic frequencies up to 50khz like vinyl can, then it will be superior to low quality 16 bit audio, like CDs. So that person you are quoting is wrong if that is the case.
From my experience of listening to tape for many years, I think it can reproduce those beneficial frequencies. So for that reason, I would put tape above 16 bit audio.
16 bit CD quality audio is about the worst thing ever for music because it does not have those ultrasonic frequencies which are known to be beneficial to the listener.
@dtz1000 replies to @angelfire2023: @nicksterj Studies have shown that ultrasonic frequencies above 20khz in music do have a positive effect on the human mind. So they can be "heard" but not in the conventional way. The biological mechanism is different.
Most musical instruments do emit these frequencies. CD cannot reproduce these frequencies. Vinyl can, but I'm not sure about tape. It's why many people prefer to listen to vinyl over CDs.
@dtz1000 replies to @angelfire2023: @nicksterj The studies are called, "Inaudible high-frequency sounds affect brain activity: hypersonic effect" and "On the mechanism of Hypersonic Effect". The author is Oohashi.
You are right that most of the harmonic energy of speech is below 15khz, but speech has been measured going up to a frequency of 40khz+. Strings (violin) has been measured at up to 50khz. Piano at up to 70khz.
At these frequencies the sound level was conservatively measured at 10db above the background level but with the possibility of it actually being up to 30db above background level at those frequencies.
@dtz1000 replies to @angelfire2023: @nicksterj No, you're not going to hear any difference. But you will feel a difference as the brain enters relaxation due to the effect of the ultrasonic frequencies.
My guess is that you will never accept the findings of these experiments because you have not experienced these things for yourself while listening to music with high frequency components. Until you do experience those effects yourself, you will never accept it.
@kaycordingly2437: I’m a Gen-Xer and I collect vinyl over cds now for a few reasons. I grew up with cassettes and later compact discs. But I miss having sides A & B from the cassette days. This also makes records just a little more hands-on, which is why I prefer interacting with vinyl over cds. I also like having bigger artwork to display above the record player when I’m listening to an album. I appreciate the better dynamic range records offer, as modern cds can often sound grating to my ears (I’m not an audiophile though so I don’t have an expensive setup). I’m sure there are more reasons that I haven’t thought of.
Oh! And also it's a great way to support independent artists. I do have a couple of Taylor Swift records but probably 80% of my vinyl comes from Bandcamp.
@abanks5791: Vinyl Records feel better with the analog punch It has along with that warm dark sound it has... CDs sound good though flat.
@thornwithin6195: I'm a cd lover and my collection is almost at 500! I almost got a turntable as the deluxe version of my favorite bands have picture disks as well as different colors [kinds cool as a collection]. Why I love cd. Main reason is cleaning. Vinyl attracts dust and that would drive me nuts. Cd's are really easy to keep clean and they sound great. Also wayyyy cheaper!
@niebuhrsongs: At least vinyl is not losing its value. For now.
@prowlingfrost5588 replies to @niebuhrsongs: It depends what are the albums.
@EricB256: It's a community thing, I suppose. Over here in Europe, fashionable people definitely believe the hype about LPs. They can also hunt them down in physical stores and at record fairs, which is fun. People are less likely to want to do that with a medium that is (sadly) looked down upon for no apparent reason other than some bad mastering jobs which some hit albums have received in the medium's prime, and have given the medium a bad rep that oddly persists to this day. In a way, the image of CD is like that of ELO to post-punk journalism. Looks like snobbery and psychological disconnect can sell inferior product in droves.
@Dr23rippa: I think most people who prefer Vinyl, its not because it sounds better but they grew up with that sound. Much like for me was CD i caught the last part of tape but rewinding that took ages and CD solved that issue...Then mp3 came right in and solved all sorts...
@westcommonroom9737: Analysing personal choice is a waste of time. Proved again here...
@AudioMasterclass replies to @westcommonroom9737: Either you didn't watch the whole video or you didn't understand it. Why people make the choices they do is well worth understanding - you can avoid their mistakes or imitate their successes. Or you can sell stuff to them.
@avetechnician: I was so glad to ditch vinyl in favour of CD's. No rumble, scratches or distortion. Listening to CDs you could hear only the music without the inherent noises associated with vinyl...
@Chris.P.Noodle: I can pick up a vinyl and read the sleeve notes, track listing, etc. I can't do that with a cd without reaching for my glasses, so there is that.
@AudioMasterclass replies to @Chris.P.Noodle: This is why the monocle should come back into fashion.
@ridirefain6606: I still buy a lot of CD's, never got rid of my player, even collect SACD reissues of my favorite music growing up for a high-resolution fix, albeit I really cannot much of a difference from a well mastered red book. Stream too.
Personally, my favorite way to enjoy music is to play a record. Nor because I consider it a better format, for me the current champ is still a well mastered SACD. However, nothing beats vinyl's ability to provide an experiential pleasure on top of an audio one. The nostalgia, being able to see the artwork, the joy of discovering something OOP from 50 or 60 years ago. This is an experience that cannot be found playing the digital formats. The downside with It is that corporate greed has reared its ugly head and new releases have become way overpriced. $125.00 for a reissue that was mastered from a digital source? If I am going to have to spend that kind of money, I will leave it and look for a well-preserved original pressing first.
@bananaskin7527: I gave up my vinyl and went to CDs. I do not wish to switch again. Maybe if Verve and CTI come back.
@Mike-mp2fj: Vinyl feels real and depending on the system sounds warmer .
@lights80088: People would follow taylor off a cliff. Most albums these days sound like crap anyway. Originally recorded digital music, transferred to vinyl sound terrible.
@krzysiok: i gave up on buying vinyl because they are too expensive. It is just not worth it, i stick to CDs
@record_guy59: analogue is real, digital is fake. it's that simple
@mvv1408: Vinyl is doing well because they sound a bit off. Vinyl records are imperfect, just like humans.
@lizichell2: Selling records is the only way artists can make money as streaming rips rhem off
@terrygj: Implicit in the stats is that CDs and LPs sold roughly the same number of units, its just that pricing of each means revenue from CD is a third of that from LP. No wonder the companies are pushing vinyl. The great dumbing-down continues.
@jimromanski2702: Young folks like vinyl records. My daughter has a killer setup and it sounds better than any CD (though probably even with SACD). Record companies LOVE vinyl since you can't make a vinyl copy of a vinyl record so they're pushing them. Stop being an old fuddy duddy and get on the vinyl train,
@keithspillett5298: You ask for comments regarding favourite listening 'mediums'. I worked as a recording engineer and live sound reinforcement engineer until retiring recently. I have a vast collection of vinyl AND CDs, and I thoroughly enjoy listening to both. I totally appreciate that CD wipes the floor with vinyl, but there's still something rather enjoyable about placing a 12" diameter piece of plastic on a turntable and 'dropping' a stylus on it. 'Back in the day', prior to digital recording being widely available, I used to enjoy recording on tape running at 15ips using Dolby SR. That used to sound pretty darned good, but the necessary equipment required careful maintenance to keep it operating at the peak of its abilities. I continued to use this equipment for a while AFTER the introduction of CD, because finally a medium existed that could reproduce accurately what my masters really sounded like.
@AudioMasterclass replies to @keithspillett5298: Somewhere out there is an audiophile who uses 15 ips tape with Dolby SR for their personal listening. And they can afford it.
@scottlowell493: I’ve observed a lot of buyers are hipsters with rudimentary usb tables with super basic cartridge not exactly getting the best playback. Vinyl made from a digital file no less.
@dtz1000 replies to @scottlowell493: They are now made from DSD files which are far superior to CD.
@johnorourke1636 replies to @scottlowell493: It does baffle me that people are claiming that vinyl has a better, richer sound while playing it on really crappy equipment.