4 ms·

If you want the best sound quality, CDs are definitely the way to go - they are better than vinyl and compressed digital audio files Only if they’re mastered w

If you want the best sound quality, CDs are definitely the way to go - they are better than vinyl and compressed digital audio files Only if they’re mastered with the intention of producing the best quality. There are tons of CDs out there that were mastered for other purposes [1]. These are a big factor in the vinyl boom because the latter versions (of the same album) tend not to have the same flaw. Of course, there were also vinyl records and cassettes mastered in this crappy way, but I suspect those won’t be so popular today. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war

worrycue 4y ago
Vinyls have one other weakness though, wear and tear. The more you play it the worse the sound quality gets.
- Cthulhu_ 4y ago
  There are players that use lasers instead of a physical needle I believe, but then you probably end up with CD quality since they basically sample the physical structure of the album. But personally, I'll stick to digital for listening to music; vinyl is for collecting. I've got a handful of vinyl albums but not even a player, lol.
  - brokenmachine 4y ago
    >you probably end up with CD quality There is absolutely zero chance of getting CD quality off a physical record, even using a laser. People don't seem to understand how good CD quality actually is. 96dB dynamic range is not to be sniffed at.
  - worrycue 4y ago
    > then you probably end up with CD quality since they basically sample the physical structure of the album. Not quite. Vinyl if I'm right physically represents the audio wave forms - and there might be limits to how accurately it can do so due to the limitations of the material. CDs sample the audio waveform at 44.1Khz (44,100 samples per second) and quantized the input to 16 bits (2^16 different levels) then using the magic of math it reproduces almost the exact same waveform it sampled during playback - with any errors (from quantization if I'm right) pushed to frequencies we can't heard.
globular-toast 4y ago
The only CDs you can trust are those of classical music. The CD format is really allowed to shine with classical music and vinyl cannot come close. Having said that, a good vinyl record will still sound remarkably good. But for popular music all bets are off. There were some great CDs released prior to the 90s and a few here and there since but most have had numerous "remasters" issued since. Unless you know what you're looking for you'll probably end up with something crap. It's unfortunately the strengths of CD (and digital in general) that become its downfall. CD will happily and faithfully reproduce clipping and other unnatural waveforms. Vinyl simply can't be abused to such an extent which is one reason it often sounds more pleasing to the ear.
- mrob 4y ago
  This online database is useful for estimating how compressed something will sound: https://dr.loudness-war.info/ https://dr.loudness-war.info/ The DR score isn't a perfect measure of perceived dynamic range (e.g. the surface noise and phase distortion of vinyl can increase DR score without adding any musically significant dynamic range), but it's a good starting point. >CD will happily and faithfully reproduce clipping and other unnatural waveforms. Vinyl simply can't be abused to such an extent Ability to reproduce clipping depends on the high frequency response of the medium. High frequency response of good vinyl typically exceeds that of human hearing, so if you ignore the inherent flaws of the medium (e.g. low signal-to-noise ratio), it can reproduce clipping that sounds the same as CDs. However, this requires mastering at a lower volume, which defeats the point of the loudness war, so the only reason to do this is saving money by reusing the digital master. Many vinyl releases do this anyway. See: https://wiki.hydrogenaud.io/index.php?title=Myths_(Vinyl) https://wiki.hydrogenaud.io/index.php?title=Myths_(Vinyl)

worrycue 4y ago

Vinyls have one other weakness though, wear and tear. The more you play it the worse the sound quality gets.

Cthulhu_ 4y ago
There are players that use lasers instead of a physical needle I believe, but then you probably end up with CD quality since they basically sample the physical structure of the album. But personally, I'll stick to digital for listening to music; vinyl is for collecting. I've got a handful of vinyl albums but not even a player, lol.
- brokenmachine 4y ago
  >you probably end up with CD quality There is absolutely zero chance of getting CD quality off a physical record, even using a laser. People don't seem to understand how good CD quality actually is. 96dB dynamic range is not to be sniffed at.
- worrycue 4y ago
  > then you probably end up with CD quality since they basically sample the physical structure of the album. Not quite. Vinyl if I'm right physically represents the audio wave forms - and there might be limits to how accurately it can do so due to the limitations of the material. CDs sample the audio waveform at 44.1Khz (44,100 samples per second) and quantized the input to 16 bits (2^16 different levels) then using the magic of math it reproduces almost the exact same waveform it sampled during playback - with any errors (from quantization if I'm right) pushed to frequencies we can't heard.

globular-toast 4y ago

The only CDs you can trust are those of classical music. The CD format is really allowed to shine with classical music and vinyl cannot come close. Having said that, a good vinyl record will still sound remarkably good. But for popular music all bets are off. There were some great CDs released prior to the 90s and a few here and there since but most have had numerous "remasters" issued since. Unless you know what you're looking for you'll probably end up with something crap. It's unfortunately the strengths of CD (and digital in general) that become its downfall. CD will happily and faithfully reproduce clipping and other unnatural waveforms. Vinyl simply can't be abused to such an extent which is one reason it often sounds more pleasing to the ear.

mrob 4y ago
This online database is useful for estimating how compressed something will sound: https://dr.loudness-war.info/ https://dr.loudness-war.info/ The DR score isn't a perfect measure of perceived dynamic range (e.g. the surface noise and phase distortion of vinyl can increase DR score without adding any musically significant dynamic range), but it's a good starting point. >CD will happily and faithfully reproduce clipping and other unnatural waveforms. Vinyl simply can't be abused to such an extent Ability to reproduce clipping depends on the high frequency response of the medium. High frequency response of good vinyl typically exceeds that of human hearing, so if you ignore the inherent flaws of the medium (e.g. low signal-to-noise ratio), it can reproduce clipping that sounds the same as CDs. However, this requires mastering at a lower volume, which defeats the point of the loudness war, so the only reason to do this is saving money by reusing the digital master. Many vinyl releases do this anyway. See: https://wiki.hydrogenaud.io/index.php?title=Myths_(Vinyl) https://wiki.hydrogenaud.io/index.php?title=Myths_(Vinyl)