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CD vs LP - Who cares when it's a crappy recording?

I read the recent post about CD vs. SACD vs. LP's. I have a CD player only, and am new to audiophile-dom. But I must say, I'd be a happy camper if all my CD's sounded as good as my best CD. I'm way less concerned with improving the source sound of the FORMAT, and way more concerned that some of my CD's sound beautiful while others just suck.

Wouldn't you trade in all the discussion about better formats if the recording engineers would all get their acts together so that any type of music you bought would sound as good as possible for its format?

Also, can someone confirm that there are as many bad recordings on record as there are on CD?
matt8268
rives
953 posts
 
I personally like bad recordings highly compressed in MP3 format. (I'm only kidding of course)
lugnut
1,190 posts
 
Matt,

There are, in fact, a boatload of poor recordings on vinyl. whether it's equal (percentage of poor recordings) between CD and vinyl is open for debate and I would rather not go there. I agree with your statement though. Good recordings, regardless of the format, are equal to spending thousands in equipment upgrades. The problem is that "it is what it is" and the correct upgrades in your front end will make all recordings as good as they can be. From my limited perspective I must say that going with active crossovers made nearly all of my library very listenable. Do others have the same experience?

Patrick

gthrush1
241 posts
 
You are correct. Format is less important than implementation. There are awful recordings in all formats. There are also fantastic recordings in all formats.

Some formats have the potential to sound better than others due to available bandwidth, etc.

In some cases, it's simply a matter of availability, too. There are lots of records that never made it to cd. Conversely, there are lots of cd's that were never available on vinyl.

Any "audiofool" worth his or her salt should be open to using more than one format, for the reasons stated above.
ben_campbell
1,169 posts
 
Of course there is much difference of opinion about what constitutes a great recording as there is about different formats.
I actually care more about the music than the recording and that's another set of opinions again........
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