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Preferences for CD or Vinyl on certain LPs.

F

Frankiesays

Rats is life.
Having been a life long vinyl user, dissatisfaction with my vinyl set up - on certain lps anyway - led me to buy the CD version, I've always had a cdp but only used it for classical music. And I've so far been surprised at how good a cdp can be - I've a mint Pioneer PD-8700 - not quite up there with the posh Sonys but pretty good to my ears. On Stevie W onders Innervisions for instance the sibilance that was there on the opening bars of the first track has gone with CD version, of course my vinyl copy might not be perfect, but the soundstage was bigger, detail was greater with CD. My vinyl set up is NA Interspace, Jelco 750D arm, and just bought Nagaoka MP200, quite a step up from my previous Ortofon2M/Denon DL110 carts. Its early days yet for comparisons, I'm busy at minute scouring Ebay for bargain cds. But just wondering whether anyone else prefers a certain format for different music, and if so what? As far as streaming goes I only listen wirelessly, and the quality certainly reflects that, it is good for casual/experimental listening.
 
Mastering is everything. I could easily stack a vinyl or CD dem either way by chosing poorly mastered vinyl vs. a great sounding CD, or vice versa. To my mind a good well balanced system should average out the wins and losses between formats, neither format being dominant. One always killing the other implies imbalance somewhere IMO. I’d certainly not worry about specific cases.
 
Tony L said:
Mastering is everything. I could easily stack a vinyl or CD dem either way by chosing poorly mastered vinyl vs. a great sounding CD, or vice versa. To my mind a good well balanced system should average out the wins and losses between formats, neither firmat being dominant. One always killing the other implies imbalance somewhere IMO. I’d certainly not worry about specific cases.
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This. I’m still buying both formats. I actually have way more vinyl than CDs but that’s partially because of previously having an almost religious dedication to vinyl and partially because I could get good used vinyl cheap... but now I can pick CDs up cheap and I am doing. A well mastered CD sounds superb on my Linn CD players... which can also be bought for the price of a half decent cartridge these days.
 
We went over to CDPs when children and cats came on the scene, although we still have the Sondek in occasional use.

There’s nothing quite like the horror of watching a 5 kg Burmese walking on the platter. Fortunately I’d taken the LP off, the arm was clipped and the cartridge capped.

Bounced well though, Phil@Winchester had obvious done a good set-up job! :)
 
Tony L said:
Mastering is everything. I could easily stack a vinyl or CD dem either way by chosing poorly mastered vinyl vs. a great sounding CD, or vice versa. To my mind a good well balanced system should average out the wins and losses between formats, neither format being dominant. One always killing the other implies imbalance somewhere IMO. I’d certainly not worry about specific cases.
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How do you know which has been better mastered before buying though?
 
Joe P said:
Frankie,


Steve Hoffman's forum has a 3 bazilion-page thread on every recording ever made. If you're really hardcore you spend a month there researching before buying the EP, LP, CD, DVD-audio, Blu-Ray audio or SACD.

Joe
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But I’ve ventured over there a couple of times and I thought they were clinically insane to a man, in contrast to the level-headed, urbane, not-in-any-way-peculiar forum dwellers here.
 
Marchbanks,

Makes me wonder what we obsessed about before the invention of the home audio system. The best stones for arrowheads, the best species of stick to rub together to make a fire, whether it's a good idea to let wolves domesticate themselves...

Just imagine if early humans had the interweb.

Joe
 
Frankiesays said:
As far as streaming goes I only listen wirelessly, and the quality certainly reflects that, it is good for casual/experimental listening.
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Even wired is bad, streaming is evil..
I don’t have a good vinyl set up, but the best sounding cds are the first press from mid ‘80s, especially those with preemphasis, or the Target WG if you got the money..
 
Joe P said:
Frankie,


Steve Hoffman's forum has a 3 bazilion-page thread on every recording ever made. If you're really hardcore you spend a month there researching before buying the EP, LP, CD, DVD-audio, Blu-Ray audio or SACD.

Joe
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Noooooooooo. No time.
 
Well just bought some more cds to compare with my vinyl lps - David Sylvians Secrets of the beehive - an audiophile feast on any format, shows ever so slightly greater detail - I think anyway - on the cd version. As with all cds it has that floating less solid feel I'm used to with vinyl. Beginning to think I should just buy cds in future. A real bargain now that everyones steaming. Now I'm thinking could cd be even better with 'one of those posh sonys'! I guess after playing cds for a week or two when I go back to vinyl I'll be like 'this is much better'!
 
Joe P said:
Frankie,


Steve Hoffman's forum has a 3 bazilion-page thread on every recording ever made. If you're really hardcore you spend a month there researching before buying the EP, LP, CD, DVD-audio, Blu-Ray audio or SACD.

Joe
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Just had a look, but looked a bit daunting trying to find the release I wanted.
 
You could of course go crazy trying to research stuff on the Hoffman nut forum. Generally though you need to be careful with more recently remastered CDs (say, during the last 10+ years or so). These were done during the 'loudness wars' when loudness/compression was pursued to the detriment of dynamic range. I feel quite safe buying CDs that came out (i.e. mastered) in the 1990s or early 2000s.

This is my rule of thumb. Its not infallible of course and there are many exceptions. Sometimes recent remasterings can sound very good because engineers had access to better digital tools than available before.

Frankiesays said:
How do you know which has been better mastered before buying though?
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hockman said:
You could of course go crazy trying to research stuff on the Hoffman nut forum. Generally though you need to be careful with more recently remastered CDs (say, during the last 10+ years or so). These were done during the 'loudness wars' when loudness/compression was pursued to the detriment of dynamic range. I feel quite safe buying CDs that came out (i.e. mastered) in the 1990s or early 2000s.

This is my rule of thumb. Its not infallible of course and there are many exceptions. Sometimes recent remasterings can sound very good because engineers had access to better digital tools than available before.
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What about 80s cds?
 
Those tend to be trickier. That used to be the early days of CDs and many CDs were not properly remastered for the format. It's possible that the record master was used for making the CD which is not a good choice. BUT there are some that are very nice sounding, e.g. the early Ron McMaster remastered Blue Note CDs or the Verve ones.

I do have quite a few 1980s CDs that I am quite happy with.
 
Instead of looking at decades, these days I think in terms of original release versus remaster. I'd say most remasters are worse.

Caveats:
1. there are exceptions, though I can't think of any right now!
2. bear in mind the difference between a reissue and a remaster
 
Frankie,

I set aside a month on Steve Hoffman's forum for each recording I was thinking of buying. All was going well until it hit me that I hadn’t eaten in several days and that I really don't like Dire Straits that much anyway so why am I wasting so much time on this.

Joe
 
Joe P said:
Frankie,

I set aside a month on Steve Hoffman's forum for each recording I was thinking of buying. All was going well until it hit me that I hadn’t eaten in several days and that I really don't like Dire Straits that much anyway so why am I wasting so much time on this.

Joe
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Yes quite, just get 'em cheap off the bay, and see. I got a few cds today, Hendrix Axis, Beatles Abbey road, D. sylvian Beehive, all sound superb, the Hendrix less congested than my vinyl copy (80s polydor reissue). I have them all on vinyl, and I've always been a 'vinyls best' type, rather unthinkingly! I'll go back to vinyl in a weeks time and see how it sounds, there'll probably be something I didn't realise I'd miss. The only LP I searched for on the Hoffman forums was Yes - Topograhic oceans', a genre I don't normally listen to, and there was ALOT of conversation on that one!
 
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