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There are objective reasons to favor vinyl even today. The 'audio quality' if measured in terms of SNR is objectively much worse than any modern medium, however

by mbell 8y ago

There are objective reasons to favor vinyl even today. The 'audio quality' if measured in terms of SNR is objectively much worse than any modern medium, however the mixes used for vinyl tend to not be compressed to death so the dynamic range can offset this shortcoming.

dbrgn 8y ago
In that case you're comparing mixes, not media.
- mbell 8y ago
  Yes, but the two are intertwined. You often can not get a flac file from source with the same mix that was put on vinyl, just the unfortunate reality of it. This is exactly what I'm saying, people will say that vinyl "sounds better", and they aren't wrong in a lot of cases. Not because vinyl is a better medium, but because a good mix isn't available in any other medium.
fermienrico 8y ago
You have a good point and I've heard of this before. The problem is that it depends on the artist/mixing engineer and production process. There is no guarantee. It is ironic that higher quality mastering is done on a vintage outdated (barring recent resurgence) and objectively lower fidelity medium. It'd be nice to see CD's having great mastering and may be some of them do?
- mbell 8y ago
  > It is ironic that higher quality mastering is done on a vintage outdated (barring recent resurgence) and objectively lower fidelity medium. It'd be nice to see CD's having great mastering and may be some of them do? It's because there is a very limited number of people whom care about accurate sound reproduction. The _vast_ majority of listeners use garbage sound reproduction systems (Beats headphones, bluetooth cannon speakers, almost everything Bose makes now, etc). The small segment that cares is also heavily dominated by the audiophile sub-segment, selling vinyl to them is icing on the cake. The segment that _really_ cares about audio quality, those that care but are not 'audiophiles', is _extremely_ small and not worth targeting at the consumer level.
- Tor3 8y ago
  A little OT, but in my little home town the last CD shop disappeared a year or so ago. But you can still buy vinyl in town..
ddingus 8y ago
Yes

by mbell 8y ago

dbrgn 8y ago

In that case you're comparing mixes, not media.

mbell 8y ago
Yes, but the two are intertwined. You often can not get a flac file from source with the same mix that was put on vinyl, just the unfortunate reality of it. This is exactly what I'm saying, people will say that vinyl "sounds better", and they aren't wrong in a lot of cases. Not because vinyl is a better medium, but because a good mix isn't available in any other medium.

fermienrico 8y ago

You have a good point and I've heard of this before. The problem is that it depends on the artist/mixing engineer and production process. There is no guarantee. It is ironic that higher quality mastering is done on a vintage outdated (barring recent resurgence) and objectively lower fidelity medium. It'd be nice to see CD's having great mastering and may be some of them do?

mbell 8y ago
> It is ironic that higher quality mastering is done on a vintage outdated (barring recent resurgence) and objectively lower fidelity medium. It'd be nice to see CD's having great mastering and may be some of them do? It's because there is a very limited number of people whom care about accurate sound reproduction. The _vast_ majority of listeners use garbage sound reproduction systems (Beats headphones, bluetooth cannon speakers, almost everything Bose makes now, etc). The small segment that cares is also heavily dominated by the audiophile sub-segment, selling vinyl to them is icing on the cake. The segment that _really_ cares about audio quality, those that care but are not 'audiophiles', is _extremely_ small and not worth targeting at the consumer level.
Tor3 8y ago
A little OT, but in my little home town the last CD shop disappeared a year or so ago. But you can still buy vinyl in town..

ddingus 8y ago

Yes