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One other reason why vinyl sounds better is that how it’s mastered. For streaming, tracks are optimized for low quality headphones and phone speakers. Loudness

by mtts 6y ago

One other reason why vinyl sounds better is that how it’s mastered. For streaming, tracks are optimized for low quality headphones and phone speakers. Loudness is all that is required. Mastering for vinyl, however, takes effort. Do it wrong and the record becomes unplayable. So when you have to put in the effort anyway, might as well make it sound good at the same time. A/B some tracks some time. Chances are the vinyl version sounds more polished with a bit more dynamics instead of having everything slam into a limiter. This has nothing to do with sound coloring or “warmth”.

Baeocystin 6y ago
To add on to above, the Wikipedia article on the Loudness War is an interesting read: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war
- tuatoru 6y ago
  Yeah, the Loudness War is why (new pressings from) old 1970s and 1980s masters sound better to many people. (Me included.) To add to the differences, technological limitations of vinyl (inability to handle heavy bass) possibly affected the music that was made and published. Maybe it had to be more melodic, or something.
  - radus 6y ago
    Yes, bass is harder to reproduce on vinyl - RIAA equalization is applied in the mastering process to help with this. Some "sss" sounds are prone to producing sibilance, which can be filtered out during mastering or avoided at the recording stage.
input_sh 6y ago
I mean, compared to the majority of streaming platforms (YouTube, Spotify), sure. But there's the entire world of lossless music that just outperforms vinyls in every way. But yeah, in both cases, you'd need to shell out at least a couple of hundred euros on speakers to fully experience either vinyls or lossless, and that has proven to be not important to the vast majority of the people. I have a pretty large collection of lossless files, a record player, some vinyls, and speakers that allow me to tell the difference, but I still play Spotify on them like 95% of the time.
- tuatoru 6y ago
  > you'd need to shell out at least a couple of hundred euros on speakers to fully experience either vinyls or lossless. A pair of Sony MDR-7506es would do it. The workhorse cans of the recording industry.
  - nseggs 6y ago
    Don’t forget the converters. A lot of people get crazy headphones and connect them to their laptop headphone jack or a cheap Focusrite interface where poor design and pcb layout mean you can literally hear the power section.
- jacobush 6y ago
  Lots of CDs and lossless digital is mastered like shit, for whatever reason. My fav to hate is Depeche Modes “Playing the Angel”. I was given it at release and couldn’t at first understand why my (very humble, late 80s) set played it so bad. Well, it’s clipped to hell. Some vinyl releases seem to be just copy paste of a shitty digital master, but most vinyl is mastered well. This HAS to be a big reason many prefer vinyl. Older vinyl also often has less range, but no clipping, which can make them soothing to listen to. I suppose automatic gain adjustment in Spotify gives the same result, so there’s that. But the thing with vinyl for me are the physical things and the ritual. It’s sheer joy. I don’t have many records, maybe 30, but it’s a fun thing.

by mtts 6y ago

Baeocystin 6y ago

To add on to above, the Wikipedia article on the Loudness War is an interesting read: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war

tuatoru 6y ago
Yeah, the Loudness War is why (new pressings from) old 1970s and 1980s masters sound better to many people. (Me included.) To add to the differences, technological limitations of vinyl (inability to handle heavy bass) possibly affected the music that was made and published. Maybe it had to be more melodic, or something.
- radus 6y ago
  Yes, bass is harder to reproduce on vinyl - RIAA equalization is applied in the mastering process to help with this. Some "sss" sounds are prone to producing sibilance, which can be filtered out during mastering or avoided at the recording stage.

input_sh 6y ago

I mean, compared to the majority of streaming platforms (YouTube, Spotify), sure. But there's the entire world of lossless music that just outperforms vinyls in every way. But yeah, in both cases, you'd need to shell out at least a couple of hundred euros on speakers to fully experience either vinyls or lossless, and that has proven to be not important to the vast majority of the people. I have a pretty large collection of lossless files, a record player, some vinyls, and speakers that allow me to tell the difference, but I still play Spotify on them like 95% of the time.

tuatoru 6y ago
> you'd need to shell out at least a couple of hundred euros on speakers to fully experience either vinyls or lossless. A pair of Sony MDR-7506es would do it. The workhorse cans of the recording industry.
- nseggs 6y ago
  Don’t forget the converters. A lot of people get crazy headphones and connect them to their laptop headphone jack or a cheap Focusrite interface where poor design and pcb layout mean you can literally hear the power section.
jacobush 6y ago
Lots of CDs and lossless digital is mastered like shit, for whatever reason. My fav to hate is Depeche Modes “Playing the Angel”. I was given it at release and couldn’t at first understand why my (very humble, late 80s) set played it so bad. Well, it’s clipped to hell. Some vinyl releases seem to be just copy paste of a shitty digital master, but most vinyl is mastered well. This HAS to be a big reason many prefer vinyl. Older vinyl also often has less range, but no clipping, which can make them soothing to listen to. I suppose automatic gain adjustment in Spotify gives the same result, so there’s that. But the thing with vinyl for me are the physical things and the ritual. It’s sheer joy. I don’t have many records, maybe 30, but it’s a fun thing.