Cd wees wees over vinyl ?

[Pete The Cat]

I don't buy the idea that record companies are doing it to push people to vinyl.

That was a bit of a provocation on my part The problem is probably that many CDs simply get the same mastering as other digital files, so are compromised by a sound that's aimed at headphones, smart speakers, cars etc, whereas vinyl is being mastered separately just as you'd hope. But it's worth remembering how clever the record industry has been at getting us to re-buy or to upsell to us over the years - mysteriously a better version always seems to become available. How many folks here wonder how they came to have 5 copies of a favourite album?

To the original question, I find CDs up to the mid 1990s are a good bet. After that the "loudness wars" make them risky and you end up having to scour forums and the DR database to decide whether to take a punt.

Pete