Originally Posted by
AJSki2fly
From my experience if comparing vinyl with CD(digital) then generally the aural experience can be quite different, even when listening to recordings on each medium taken from the same master recording, obviously the equipment used in both cases can and will have an impact to. I believe though the difference between the two is primarily due to the transcription process of each being distinctly different and each has its own unique compression/decompression methods.
Vinyl has to mechanically manage low frequencies(bass) and the impact it has in trying to get a small needle to follow if not compressed would be an impractically large groove, the upper frequencies are not so affected but getting accurate high end frequencies recorded and reproduced with vinyl is also a challenge.
Digital recording works completely differently and faces no such issues, but what does impact it is accurate timing and loss of data when trying to recreate an analogue signal, we are all familiar with the terms frequency rate, over-sampling, error correction and clocking which are aspects/methods of trying to eradicate issues with digital.
I have a reasonably large collection of vinyl(1600+), collected over the last 8 years, 90% purchased at charity shops, used records shops or friends collections given to me. I also have around 600 CDs and quite a large number of digital files (mp3, CD equivalent and Flac).
I returned to vinyl for several reasons, mainly because I realised that I like the way it sounds, since the early 80s I found CDs sound reproduction frustrating, it fluctuated from superb to awful depending on how, who or what had produced it, having said that you also get good and appalling records. The other reason I started re-collecting vinyl was it gave me an interest and hobby whilst I came to terms with my heart problems and it got me out and took my mind of it.
So where am I now, I suppose my preferred listening experience is vinyl, although this is using what most would consider a not inexpensive turntable, cartridge and phono-stage amp, not top end but does a very good job, I know some who have spent double or more with not much gain in SQ in IMHO. I also listen to CDs with an Audiolab 8300cdq(very capable CDP) and to be honest it is very good and at times more revealing(accurate) than vinyl. I also listen to digital streaming, with Rpi/HiFiBerry spdif(Volumio) to DAC and with a microRendu, I have tried TIDAL, Spotify, QObuz, used ROON and Audirvāna. I find it very difficult to say one is much better than the other reproducing the same digital files. However if you compare the cost between the vinyl replay setup and the digital replay, be it CDP or streaming, then the difference in cost is huge, in the order of 10 to 20 times that for vinyl to that of digital to get a similar level of SQ.
So in all honesty the bottom line for me is that for value for money and SQ digital wins hands down, especially if you have never heard vinyl reproduction at a good level. However I love the way vinyl sounds especially with a good record, I have never quite put my finger on why but I think it is the dynamic feeling it can portray, somehow this can be lost with digital, just a thought, it’s not necessarily better just different.