Okay.....what would you personally consider the biggest difference between vinyl records and CD's? Is it the type of sound each produces? Is it the physical look? What draws you to one and not the other?
Personally I can't hear a difference between them (or between them and an MP3 file), but I know lots of people can. If I had to have all my music in one format or the other, I think it would come down to more practical considerations such as storage space. If all our downloaded music was on vinyl it would be piled from floor to ceiling in every room!
There is a sound quality difference between the two. Some people like the crackling sound of a vinyl, while others like the crisp, clean sound of a CD. I prefer CDs just because they take up less space and they are easy to take with you.
I like the way listening to vinyl kind of forces you to listen to a whole side, in order and without stopping. With CD's all you have to do is push a button to hear another track. They make that easy for you. Vinyl's make it easy to hear a record in the order the producer wanted you to hear it.
If all our downloaded music was on vinyl it would be piled from floor to ceiling in every room!
Some people dream of that scenario. Think of all the conversation starters you would have. All the "remember when" conversations over good wine and good friends.
gofar99 Messages: 1955 Registered: May 2010 Location: Southern Arizona
Illuminati (5th Degree)
Hi, An endless discussion....sort of like which do you prefer chocolate or vanilla ice cream? When played on a high quality system both can sound excellent. On low quality systems the clear winner is the CD. That said, I tend to prefer vinyl. The two mediums have what I call a different ambience and flavor. The CD is naturally precise in presentation. It will do what ever the recording engineer wanted it to do. A LP is naturally less precise, but has a more blended surround sound stage. New LPs and well kept older ones can be extremely quiet and on a good system in a blind test most folks would not be able to consistently tell the difference. All that said I do feel that the digital hi-res media will kill the CD and likely the audio DVD. It is quite excellent sounding and will only improve as the technology develops. 32 bit 320K and above recordings can be stunning. Still with all the millions of records out there and the recent trend increasing.... sales of LPs are now at the highest level in nearly 25 years and equipment companies are scrambling to make new turntables (real ones not Crosley types). So it is not likely it will go away. Personally I find it rewarding to play a LP. I don't get the same feeling from stuffing a CD in my OPPO player. YMMV
Most people cannot tell the difference but I guess a vinyl is a bit bigger? In terms of quality of audio, I would settle for the vinyl anytime. There has been talk of production of HD vinyls in the next 3 years so. I do not see CDs lasting for long though.