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.”
128x128mkgus
The recording depends on the producer...the guy who mixes the final, etc.  Sometimes CD is better, sometimes vinyl
I think it costs too much to get a system to play LP's to the level of CD's.  LP's were compressed to fit the format.  Today I prefer SACD or HiRes Streaming.  Most new artists have vastly superior CD's - like 21 Pilots Blurryface - awful on vinyl.  John Prine's last album sounded GREAT on LP, but never heard the CD.  I have pretty much abandoned vinyl.


     My perspective is that cds have always had the potential, and had the advantage spec capacity wise, to outperform vinyl and to be an excellent source medium but have failed to live up to their potential for several reasons.
     One of these reasons or issues, as mijostyn already identified, is that the cd record companies virtually forced their recording engineers to mix their cds to attain a higher average SPL level which sacrificed the very good dynamics the digital cd format is capable of, resulting in 'uni volume' and the 'loudness wars'. 
     The cd format, after all, is just the lowest resolution current version of the lossless digital recording and playback format.  As such, it still has numerous distinct advantages over both vinyl and  reel to reel tape formats, such as lower distortion, lower noise floor, a greater frequency range and greater dynamics. 
     I have no reason to doubt teo_audio's claim that there is a fundamental flaw in all current analog to digital converters except for my personal experience listening to hi-res downloads recorded direct to digital and with minimal miking and mixing, mainly from The Sound Liaison Music Shop in Europe.
     These are all recorded direct to digital as the music is played live at their fairly large studio that has excellent acoustics.   However, I have no idea about the analog to digital conversion technology or equipment they utilize. I've only downloaded the 24 bit/96 KHz FLAC file versions thus far, but all of these recordings are clearly superior to the hundreds of ripped cd recordings on my hard drive.  The most obviously superior attributes I notice are an extremely low noise floor, very high levels of detail, stereo sound stage imaging that is very well defined with a natural 'you are there' presentation and the naturally high dynamics normally only perceived on music played and experienced live. 
     I should also note that I have nothing against vinyl and know it can also be extremely good.  I just perceive high resolution digital, that's recorded direct to digital and played back at 24 bit/96 KHz or higher resolution, to be superior in overall sound quality and a heck of a lot more convenient.
     I understand that my post doesn't strictly adhere to the OP's thread question, but that's my take on what type of sources I prefer to listen to.  I believe the fact that most cds are mixed poorly and very few are recorded direct to digital, explains why their overall sound quality performance level is not consistently superior to vinyl.

Tim