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Does Anyone Think CD is Better Than Vinyl/Analog?

I am curious to know if anyone thinks the CD format (and I suppose that could include digital altogether) sounds better than vinyl and other analog formats. Who here has gone really far down both paths and can make a valid comparison? So far, I have only gone very far down the CD path and I just keep getting blown away by what the medium is capable of! I haven’t hit a wall yet. It is extremely dependent on proper setup, synergy and source material. Once you start getting those things right, the equipment gets out of the way and it can sound more fantastic than you can imagine! It’s led me to start developing a philosophy that goes something like this: Digital IS “perfect sound forever”; it’s what we do to the signal between the surface of the CD and the speaker cone that compromises it.” 
So I suppose what I’m asking for is stories from people who have explored both mediums in depth and came to the conclusion that CD has the most potential (or vice versa - that’s helpful too). And I don’t simply mean you’ve spent a lot of money on a CD player. I mean you’ve tinkered and tweaked and done actual “research in the lab,” and came back with a deep understanding of the medium and can share those experiences with others.

In my experience, the three most important things to get right are to find a good CD player (and good rarely means most expensive in my experience) and then give it clean power. In my case, I have modified my CD player to run off battery power with DC-DC regulators. The last thing that must be done right is the preamp. It’s the difference between “sounds pretty good” and “sounds dynamic and realistic.”
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Showing 1 response by peterh_nz

peterh_nz
6 posts
 
Thoughts from the dark side.
Of course it is, why do you even need to ask the question. Just look at the hassle you go through to purchase, maintain and play vinyl. Look at the pain you go through to set up a high end turntable! Then there’s finding the perfect pressing or long sought album, only to get it home and find it off centered, warped and twisted with a nice noisy run-out (ah don’t mention surface noise)! Then there’s storage (spare room anyone), cleaning them before use and of course if your are serious you have your ~$3K Degritter record cleaner!
And we are supposed to believe that a Turntable with its power supply, tone arm, cartridge, stylus, tone arm cable, phono cable, phono stage, excluding vodo record mats, dampers and isolation issues is really better?

Hi end vinyl is pressed the same way cheap vinyl used to be - by hand! Modern cheap vinyl is pressed automatically. I used to work for a record pressing company (many years ago) and did Quality Control for the physical presses (rather than the sound quality), so I had plenty of first hand experience of trying to produce decent vinyl and procure it for my collection. Anyone that thinks their vinyl is flat think again!
As soon as Meridian produced their MCD Pro, I stopped buying vinyl and gradually replaced the vinyl I had with CD’s.
So when you say "better", for me it’s never even been a question. And, the quality/musicality of digital audio is (and has been) gradually tracking upwards. Given how long "LP’s" (in their various incarnations) have been around, digital audio is, well not nascent, but still improving.
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