Is New Vinyl Exempt from Loudness Wars?

Barnes & Noble now have LP displays! The sound of any given LP is determined by the record label. Sony is putting out LP's, but I doubt they have theirs mastered the way Mobile Fidelity does. Good luck getting any information from Sony about how their LP's are made.

It is a mixed bag!  If you want new music, it is all digital. Stick with well recorded CDs.

Forget new Lps, just buy used pure analog Lps, from before the CD, for best sonics, IMO.

Don, I know its all digital but that does not preclude having a superior recording in terms of dynamic range on a record compared to CD.

Its all a matter of how done and who is the target audience. I suspect new vinyl targets the masses and is not up to potential as a result. Mostly the same mastering as on CD but released on vinyl for something new to sell.  But I’m hoping I’m wrong. I would buy new vinyl releases of some popular recordings I like if I felt confident that the vinyl product is superior.

My daughter has bought one or two new records recently. One is Thriller. I’ll have to give it a listen and compare. Of course that is one of the best quality original pop recordings of all to start with. You’d think the recording industry would learn that you have to deliver an exceptional product in all regards to have success like that. Will be interested to hear how the new vinyl sounds.

Interesting question.  Limiting is used to make a recording sound loud and avoid distortion on digital recordings. Many modern LPs are cut from the same limited masters used for the digital release. But not all.  

My experience has been mixed.  I though the Annie Lennox and Bennet/Gaga LPs from last year excellent while Florence & The Machine's How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful was compressed garbage.  I also found Adele's 21 almost unlistenable in both CD and LP - compressed with annoyingly audible distortion.  I believe it's all in the mastering.  Good masters sound good, bad ones don't.

Happy listening!