Quote:
Originally Posted by
Trogdor 
"LP though a very good medium, is not as good as the equivalent CD from the same master, unless the CD is mastered by an idiot, of which there is no shortage these days. "
I will admit Dave, I have not heard the "needle drop" on many heavy metal releases.
This is what I was trying to get at. When I say "the vinyl is better than the CD", I'm not saying that "vinyl is better than CD". The CD format has the potential to sound incredible. Indeed, some of my favorite audiophile recordings are on CD. Dave Brubeck's Take Five, for example - the 24K Gold Japanese Mastersound CD destroys every vinyl press I've heard. Even the SACD doesn't sound as good. The CD is capable of enormous dynamic range, so much so that you can't use all of it. If someone was listening to an uncompressed CD recording with 100% of the available dynamic range, they would probably lose their hearing if they were listening to the quietest part at a normal volume level. The trend especially in the last decade has been to use next to none of it. Albums are mastered loud from beginning to end, with DR values that are typically 6dB, or even worse.
As I mentioned in the last post: Fiction on CD:
Fiction on 45rpm vinyl:
Despite the huge difference in favor of the vinyl, in this particular case I wouldn't recommend the needle drop. It was done by an amateur with relatively average equipment. Needle drops are a science, and there's only 3 or 4 guys that really know what they are doing. The guy who did the Katatonia drops and the Megadeth RIP "Final Master" is the best in the business. He generally only does either first presses or audiophile label issues when they beat the original pressings. Since vinyl has gotten more popular lately, a lot of record companies are re-issuing classic albums using crappy digital masters re-purposed for vinyl, like the Megadeth and Metallica "remastered" reissues I mentioned before. Those are worthless, they just stamp out a few thousand for the suckers who will pay $40 a pop for them.
There's nothing about vinyl itself that makes it any better than a CD. Other than CD's hard limit at 22kHz which vinyl doesn't have, it has lower limitations in every area. It comes down to master vs. master. When you're talking about albums released in the last 20 to 30 years, I can pretty much guarantee you that the vinyl master sounds better than the CD master. The medium itself doesn't matter. You can digitize the vinyl master, burn it on to a CD, and compare one to the other on the same medium and the CD-R with the vinyl master on it will destroy the factory CD pressing, pretty much every time. Assuming the needle drop was done right, anyway.
This isn't always the case. Speaking of Opeth, the guys in the band are all vinyl junkies and they were excited about doing the recent vinyl reissues of their classic albums. The record company then decided to just do them without any input from the band using crappy masters and they suck. The band has basically said don't buy them. As for the Heritage vinyl release, I haven't heard it yet. He's done a needle drop for it, I just haven't gotten around to getting it yet. I'll let you know how it stacks up to the CD. I have heard the Subrosa vinyl, it's a waste, likely the same master was used.
Let me send you one track from the RIP or the Reign In Blood "final master" drops, and you can compare it to your CDs.
