2. analog
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Am I nuts or what?

I am a dedicated analog listener but have an open mind and am willing to give digital a chance...again and again...so I decide to listen to McCartney's Tug of War. I pull the vinyl off the shelf and give it a good cleaning noticing that I hadn't taken very care of my discs in the 80s. Anyhow, I slap it on the VPI TNT and start listening...not bad, but not great either due to the occasional tick - I notice on the cover that the album was digitally mixed. Hmmm - I go and pull the CD off the shelf - late 80s purchase when I got sucked into replacing my vinyl collection - made in Japan...I slid it into my ARC CD player and was shocked at the noise that came out of my speakers...it was so thin sounding that I thought that something must be wrong with my CD set-up - metallic, tinny crud...I was thankful to have even a mediocre copy in vinyl.
I just can't believe how an album that was digitally mixed could sound so bloody awful on CD. I do have some CD's that sound great but the vast majority can't even come close to the original vinyl. Sorry for the rant, but it's been awhile since I've listened to a CD.
ntscdan
twl
3,251 posts
 
After all too many comparisons like that, I sold my digital player and all my CD's. I have no further interest in digital.
subaruguru
1,362 posts
 
Too bad, guys. Try listening to an Electrocompaniet EMC-1 MkII through an all-Pass amp chain and you might reconsider.
mdomnick
332 posts
 
Most common reason for digital sounding so bad...poor mixing or mastering. Also, the transfer to cd; there are just so many steps one can screw up to make a bad sounding cd. I can understand one's love for vinyl (I'm still digital, but moved to tubes) but a well recorded cd sounds fantastic.
marakanetz's avatar
marakanetz
5,473 posts
 
almost all vinyls after 80's were digitally mixed and i see nothing wrong in sound on most of them. WATT, ECM labels made out every recording excellent.
although i can't just through digital despite not paying too much attention on upgrading my digital combo connected with simple and cheapo Canare digital cable. whatever i cannot acquire on LP i go for cd especially for the new modern jazz recordings Scofield, Stern, etc...
some of Frank Zappa recordings never were released on vinyl.
bomarc
501 posts
 
You're probably not nuts. (Well, you're an audiophile, so you probably ARE nuts, but that's not what's relevant here.) There are two possible explanations for what's going on here. One, as others have said, is bad mastering. There's no guarantee that the LP and CD used the same digital master. Two is that there are things about vinyl that make it sound good. Lots of people think LPs sound "richer" and CDs "thinner." (There's a lot of debate in certain circles about just why that is.) Looks like you've had a very common experience.
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