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> While some in the audiophile scene like going analog, none of them debate against the truth that objectively, vinyl is far lower quality. You conveniently fo

> While some in the audiophile scene like going analog, none of them debate against the truth that objectively, vinyl is far lower quality. You conveniently forget history. Audiophiles embracing digital media is a relatively recent thing. It was vinyl and everything analog until about 10-15 years ago when it became <any combination of tech. nonsense>

adrian_b 4y ago
Many decades ago, before the appearance of any digital audio, most audiophiles agreed that vinyl sucks badly, because the records are degraded after each listening (by mechanical abrasion). When the audio CD's appeared, their main claimed advantage was not that they offer a superior sound over vinyl (early units had actually modest characteristics, with 14-bit DACs, modest low-pass filters, and possibly also low accuracy and high jitter of the sampling frequency), but that you can play the digital disc as often as you want without quality degradation. Before digital audio, real audiophiles also had a tape recorder, and as soon as they bought a new vinyl disc, they played it only once, to transfer it to a magnetic tape, and then they stored the disc safely and they played only the tape, for fear of degrading the vinyl disc when listening to it. At that time, most audiophiles believed that vinyl discs that have been played more than 3 times are no longer suitable as a master source from which to make a copy on a tape, as they were already too degraded in comparison with a new vinyl disc.
- nikau 4y ago
  Worth noting that the "tape recorder" was reel to reel not mainstream compact cassette. Reel to reel usually ran the tape almost 4 times faster with over 3x wider tape vs mainstream compact cassette, so it was very high quality.
  - iggldiggl 4y ago
    And eventually even that kind of tape will wear out, too. Though I suppose it might be more of a concern in commercial usage than at home… One interesting fact I've come across is that e.g. when Bob Dylan's "electric trilogy" first came out on CD, they apparently had to do new remixes of Bringing It All Back Home and Blonde On Blonde not because they just felt like it, like they so often seem to do these days for artistic and/or sales-tactical reasons, but simply because by that time the original master tapes (including the safety copy) had worn out somewhat through continuous re-pressings of the original vinyl albums.

adrian_b 4y ago

Many decades ago, before the appearance of any digital audio, most audiophiles agreed that vinyl sucks badly, because the records are degraded after each listening (by mechanical abrasion). When the audio CD's appeared, their main claimed advantage was not that they offer a superior sound over vinyl (early units had actually modest characteristics, with 14-bit DACs, modest low-pass filters, and possibly also low accuracy and high jitter of the sampling frequency), but that you can play the digital disc as often as you want without quality degradation. Before digital audio, real audiophiles also had a tape recorder, and as soon as they bought a new vinyl disc, they played it only once, to transfer it to a magnetic tape, and then they stored the disc safely and they played only the tape, for fear of degrading the vinyl disc when listening to it. At that time, most audiophiles believed that vinyl discs that have been played more than 3 times are no longer suitable as a master source from which to make a copy on a tape, as they were already too degraded in comparison with a new vinyl disc.

nikau 4y ago
Worth noting that the "tape recorder" was reel to reel not mainstream compact cassette. Reel to reel usually ran the tape almost 4 times faster with over 3x wider tape vs mainstream compact cassette, so it was very high quality.
- iggldiggl 4y ago
  And eventually even that kind of tape will wear out, too. Though I suppose it might be more of a concern in commercial usage than at home… One interesting fact I've come across is that e.g. when Bob Dylan's "electric trilogy" first came out on CD, they apparently had to do new remixes of Bringing It All Back Home and Blonde On Blonde not because they just felt like it, like they so often seem to do these days for artistic and/or sales-tactical reasons, but simply because by that time the original master tapes (including the safety copy) had worn out somewhat through continuous re-pressings of the original vinyl albums.