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
onhwy61's avatar
onhwy61
5,137 posts
 
Comparisons between store purchased vinyl and CD versions of the same album are usually meaningless because there's no way to know if the recording chain for each version was kept constant. Sometimes an artist will have a different mix for each format specifically designed to take into account the pluses and minuses of vinyl versus redbook digital. Other times the same final mix, which can be either digital or analog tape, is used to master both format versions.
ntscdan OP
52 posts
 
With all due respect I think the comparison is very valid.
I agree that I have no way of knowing the "chain" of events in the production of each, but I do know that the CD sounds absolutely awful and isn't worth acquiring at any price. It is just a case of buyer beware. I have noticed that CD's that preserve the original tape hiss found in almost all analog recordings tend to sound OK, but when you get a "remaster" from the 60s and you can't hear any tape hiss it usually means they've tried to "fix" one problem and then created another. For example my garden variety James Taylor "Sweet Baby James" CD on Warner sounds pretty much as good as my first pressing vinyl. All the tape hiss is there on both versions and you really have to split hairs to notice the difference...so it is possible to do a half decent job on CD....for my ears anyhow. When it comes to jazz recordings...early SAVOY, Blue Notes etc, ARGO nothing beats the deep groove vinyl!
ultrakaz
187 posts
 
No you are not nuts. I just had a similar experience with the James Taylor JT album on my old Linn LP12. Only difference was that when I put on the record I was floored; I never remembered it sounding so good. So I quickly put on the cd and then proceed to run out of the room holding my ears. This happens when I only listen to cds for a couple of months, I begin to think that it sounds pretty good. Then when I put on an Lp, I think to myself how could I listen to something so mechanical sounding. Vinyl has a sense of completeness that cds cannot match. PRaT, is also more realistic.

Having said that, cds have significant advantages over lps such as convenience, availability, and can be listened to in the car. Therefore, cd music is much better than no music.
ntscdan OP
52 posts
 
ultrakaz - now you guys are going to think I'm really nutso - I record my vinyl into the computer - trim it up with soundforge and burn it at 1x onto a CDR - I swear that it sounds better than store bought CD's - I do have lots of MOFI and direct disc stuff - I get a kick out of playing it for non-believers - most of them figure I'm fibbing when I tell them that the CD they are listening to is actually "vinyl" - the whole thing must be some kind of delusion because it really doesn't make sense - I feed the output of my ARC Ref into a Denon DA-30 which acts as the A/D then s/dif out into the computer - makes me happy though - so no excuses about "convenience" - you can have your analog made digitally easy...
ntscdan OP
52 posts
 
one more thing - if you like the JT album try and find an original british pressing from 1978 - vinyl quality in the UK hadn't deteriorated as fast as in the US - it is dead quiet - gorgeous - I just listened to it - I think it might have even been pressed on virgin vinyl - I'll have to hold it up to the light - but secret O life is playing,
cheers.
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