I bumped into used vinyl record (Paul McCartney "Band on the Run") at a yard sale yesterday. The LP was in pretty bad shape, didn't even have inner sleeve, but I got it for one dollar. I then remembered that few years back I bought the "Uncompressed Audiophile 96kHz/24bit" hi-res download of the remastered album (http://www.hdtracks.com/band-on-the-...d-uncompressed), so I decided to compare the LP with the hi-res remaster.

I was sure that the hi-res remaster is going to destroy the old vinyl (I had strong expectation bias). I was stunned when I played both formats side-by-side to hear how LP sounded much, much better than digital remaster. Especially knowing that the LP is old, abused, warped, not in the best overall shape.

Previously I wasn't surprised when I was comparing CDs to LPs and when I heard that vinyl beats the red book format. But I always thought that hi-res digital must have an upper hand compared to vinyl. Listening to both formats on "Band on the Run", I couldn't help but conclude that remastered hi-res digital sounds like a joke compared to the old school vinyl. I'm still in the state of disbelief...