Re: @ It's understandable...
Sometimes that difference can be due to the remastering inflicted on the CD, rather than the difference between formats.
*Always*.
The quantisation noise inherent in the digitisation needed for a CD is orders of magnitude less than the distortion inherent in the analogue stages you need to run vinyl - and that's if we assume a perfect turntable with a perfect pickup[1].
But many CDs were "remastered", which usually meant finding the deafest YTS muppet you could, and getting him to turn all the knobs to 11. And it doesn't matter how faithfully you reproduce that, it will always sound shite.
So if you're one of those people who thinks vinyl sounds better than CD, at least one of the following is true[2] :-
- You're listening to a crap master
- You prefer your music to sound differently to that laid down by the track's producer[3]
CD *is* more faithful than vinyl. Fidelity is not always what sells.
Vic.
[1] Neither of these can exist, of course.
[2] There is theoretically a third option: you might have a recording with extremely high dynamic range. CDs have a limit, whereas vinyl is actually unlimited - but you're going to lose that range into the noise floor if you actually tried it.
[3] This is more common than you might think - particularly amongst those of us who grew up with vinyl.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
