While it's true that CD's have a tendency to not sound like vinyl, you have
to understand that vinyl records had a stronger tendency to not sound much
like the master tapes from which they were made. I'm sure many of you are
old enough to remember that during the golden age of HiFi, true audiophiles
usually preferred pre-recorded reel to reel tapes over vinyl records. Even
though those tapes were several generations down and recorded on high-speed
duplicators, they were noticeably superior to vinyl. At this point, it's
all very subjective...do you want a CD to sound like the original recording,
do you want it to emulate the sound of vinyl that's been well doctored by a
good mastering engineer, or do you just want old recordings to sound the way
you remembered them? When record companies were reissuing their entire
catalogs on CD, the digital mastering was done in assembly line fashion
using the cheapest available gear. Many of those reissues are pretty bad,
but more recent reissues often incorporate elaborate EQ, over compression,
and various other forms of distortion to more closely resemble the original
vinyl recordings. All things considered, even though it's digital and the 16
bit, 44.1khz format is the bare minimum, a CD will sound more like the
original master recording than any of the previously available formats.
Unfortunately, CD's are on the way out and most music will eventually be
available only as an 8bit mp3 download because most people don't give a hoot
about sound quality, but they do like being able to carry all of their music
in the pocket.
> There are about 10 or more different areas of audio compromised in any
> record/playback system.
> Vinyl, tape, and CD all have some drawbacks.
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