Vinyl is back!

I'm in, but my wallet...

Is there really a difference between a CD and a vinyl disc?

I'd love to be in if I had the space available.

It's unfortunate that those statistics are skewed by the downfall of physical media being sold overall since the advent of iTunes and such. But I'm definitely glad that that media still exists and personally that of SACDs. Ooooh yeah.

Cheers!

I've been buying vinyl for the first time over past 3 months. I grew up listening to my dad's vinyl collection and since my apartment fire I've come to appreciate music more and physical possessions more so vinyl fits the bill amazingly.

I'd really like to know this as well.

Apart from the difference inherent to the media, sometimes the studios use a different master.

What's the inherent difference in audio?

Besides the fact that on is analog and the other digital?

Except for a frequency response that can go a little beyond CD, vinyl is worse and CD in every measurable parameter, distortion, signal to noise ration, dynamics, crosstalk, and moreover it has a massive RIAA equalization applied on playback.

More information here:http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/512355/the-vinyl-has-been-replaced-by-the-cd-largely-inferior-in-quality

I have been in for a LONG time :)

CD might be technically superior to vinyl in some ways but i've always enjoyed the "raw" sound and punch of records that CDs don't produce.

Can't the same thing be achieved through use of tube amps/preamps and DSP effects on digital sources, though?

 

I'm neither for nor against vinyl - I prefer digital, but I recently put together a decent vintage setup so my dad could start listening to his old records - but it seems like a lot of the "vinyl appeal" shares aspects with tube appeal - primarily, the introduction of specific distortion in order to achieve a more euphonic sound to the ear, rather than a "technically correct" music output.

 

One thing I do wonder about the upswing in vinyl sales - could it be linked with the ever-increasing numbers of retiring baby-boomers who now have the spare time and money to invest into some of their older hobbies?  Much like muscle cars saw a very steep resurgence in recent years (which seems to have cooled considerably, likely linked to the exponential increase in price for the cars in that bracket), could this simply be an upswing due to vinyl dilettantes dabbling their toes in the turntable pond?
 

 

Three big reasons I like vinyl:

 

1. Many new LP releases are mastered better than their CD counterparts, especially not being brickwalled;

2. Many new LP releases come with high-quality MP3 downloads, so you get decent digital too;

3. Many great sounding used LP's can be bought for VERY cheap, like 50 cents to $1, and so you can explore lots of great music cheap.

Between personal preference and the occasional trend-driven surge, I'm sure vinyl will be around the same way tubes will be.  But I was a bit surprised to hear that Technics ended production of the SL-1200 late last year.  Though that might simply be an indicator of what's going on in the DJ world, that deck had a good following outside as well.  It's kind of sad.

If you really want to hear how well a high end headphone setup can sound, listen to an LP. You will never go back.