Digitally recorded vinyl vs streaming


I know this is an hot button for many, but here goes... I like vinyl and have many albums from the 60's, 70's and 80's.  I'm interested in some 80's and 90's albums - like U2, REM, Nirvana,  but I wonder if they will sound any better than streaming since they were probably recored digitally.

mojo771

Showing 1 response by alvinnir2

I sold all my vinyl and vinyl playing gear over a year ago because frankly, there was no consistent "better" when comparing the 2 formats

I didn’t have a huge vinyl collection, maybe 250 albums. Sometimes the vinyl sounded better, sometimes the digital stream did. There was no question digital was quieter and much more convenient to access and explore. Ever buy an album and find it sounds crap, sometimes even unlistenable? That is a thing of the past for me now. I now only listen to music I "favorite" on my steaming platform. There is so much music out there. I feel life is too short to listen to crappy recordings, unless the performance is utterly compelling,

I also started with the Bluesound node a few years back, and at that time my vinyl set up was still often better. Since upgrading to an Auralic G2 streamer and Musician R2r Dac, I was so satisfied with the sound and thrilled with unlimited access to so much music on Tidal. that I found I simply wasn’t using the vinyl gear much and it was not worth the hassle.

BTW my vinyl set up was VPI Aries 2, turntable, Benz Wood Cartridge, Art Audio vinyl One tube phono preamp.

I suspect in a rush to cash in on the CD "perfect sound forever" craze, much Analog to digital mastering for CDs was done rather hastily, on converters that were primitive by todays standards (were talking 1980s). Much music has been digitally remastered and sounds wonderful now, So, in a nutshell, sold all my vinyl and playback gear, at top dollar I might add, and never looked back.