My experience as being a sound-engineer for 35 years make me totally agree - but I still love the LP format :-)

You nailed the problem with vinyl: there are too many variables which can cost a lot to get right. For CD playback you do need to purchase a good DAC and then connect it to any old disc player that has a coax output. Done.

I purchased the SONY CDP-101 in 1983, it is still in working order. I've loved the CD format ever since and the SACD!

I tend to listen to vinyl when listening actively, cd and digital for passive listening. Both serve a valuable purpose- to perpetuate love for the beautiful gift of music!

Perfectly said! I have bought a LOT of vinyl records in my life.... and they were charming and wonderful in their day. In fact I have 2 Magnavox console stereos from the year 1968... so I have some vintage vinly I keep with them just to play on the Micromatic turntables. However, in 1986 I went all out and bought my first CD deck for 370. A lot of money now, but A LOT more back then.... and the reason was because I could not stand those "ticks" and "pops". So I have over 300 CDs, but now only have a couple of dozen vinyl albums and those are only for nostalgia, not serious listening. THANKS for your incredible video which gives me a TON of useful arguments why I love my CDs. Especially helpful was the reminder that if a record is made from a digital source, it can't possibly be smoother than the digital master. Makes SO much sense. Thank you!

I am a product of the 70s and i was a venyl player operator at a young age of 5 , love the 45s back then. Cassette, and Cd came soon and was a hit. Yes i believe nostalgia is the reason we love sticking to antiquated technology etc.

"Warm Sound" Hi everybody and thank you very much for this REALLY competent and objective explanation on that subject. Having Engineered and being present at countless Final Record cuttings since the early 70ies I can only appreciate this post. Obviously I was part of the whole Digital Recording Process as well. In addition to this post, I would like to mention the situation of the High Frequencies, which are also part of the "Warm Sound" experience. Equal to the situation of the Low End, the Analog/Tape Recordings roll off significantly at 16 KHz. Digital Conversion easily handles 40KHz and above. When we try to listen to a "Dog Whistle" which is above 23 KHz we can't hear it. However it's there and it makes us uncomfortable. In music terms high frequencies even above our hearing capabilities can be used to produce excitement. Now if we understand the limitations of the Analog Audio Recording and consequently Vinyl Sound, We can make a Digital Recording sound very, very similar to the Warm Sound of an Analog Medium. While at the beginning of the Digital Recordings, there was a well founded critic of the Sound Quality at the time.These days however our Digital Converters and the Dynamic Range have being developed to a level, very, very few Golden Years claim to hear the difference. Another Aspect would be the Phase Relationship in a Stereo Recording between Left and Right. A Vinyl Cutting won't allow "Out of Phase" music, or the needle would dive and consequently jump. Digital Recordings allows this to happen but is not pleasing (Warm Sounding) in my opinion. All that said, I still offer a complete Analog Chain Recording and Mixing in my Studio and I love it ha, ha, ha.... Besides to have only 24 Tracks versus 100's of tracks is very challenging and can support creativity and excitement in the Music. Good Recording to all of you ❤

Well done, Tony. You've pointed out enough facts about the advantages of the CD format, so as to point out the illogical choice of going with vinyl. Nostalgia is vinyl's biggest selling point.

I'm glad I ran across your video. I have nothing against vinyl, I grew up listening to vinyl. But, since 1983-84, I've gone the cd route, at first because I had no choice. Where I grew up, record stores stopped stocking vinyl records. As you have pointed out, cd's don't wear out, and they don't skip, hiss, or pop. Of course, there are faulty cd's, like anything else made in the world. Something else I like about cd's is that I can program them. If I wish to listen to tracks 1, 4, 7, 9 on a record, it's easily done. As I said, vinyl was what I listened to growing up, so I've no problem with it, what bugs me, however, is the attitude of some people, definitely not all, in the vinyl community who seem to look down their nose at cd's and those who collect them. I don't get it, but I see it. Anyway, I'm glad to know that cd's actually sound pretty good, I can rest easy now.

For me it is Compact Disc for the sound, vinyl records for the ritual. Both formats are nostalgic to me.

My favourite element of vinyl is cover art.

What I have found as a new experience with vinyl is that I feel I need to most-likely spend a lot more than I would want to get the sound quality I achieve with my digital setup. I have about a 20K digital setup excluding the amplifier and I spent roughly 3500 on a vinyl setup and I don’t feel it sounds “better” in any way, different definitely but, not better. Turntables of quality are EXPENSIVE, cartridges of quality are EXPENSIVE then you need a capable phono pre-amp for usually that moving coil cartridge to get it up to snuff.

I spent $75,000 on my turntable. I gotta tell you all the crackles and pops sound amazingly clear now.

The problem is "better" is always subjective. Some folks like more dynamics, some folks like less; some folks like more highs/treble, some folks like more mids and lows. When folks say they like the sound of vinyl more, it can mean LOTS of different things: they like the compressed dynamic range, the needle induced snaps, crackles, and pops, the lack of higher frequencies...all of that totally depending on individual preference. Bottom line is: if a clearer, more accurate reproduction of the original sound is "better", then CDs are demonstrably better.

All I want to say is the most gut wrenching Bass I have ever heard is of J S Bach Toccata and Fugue on Cassette - so the recording/Mastering also play's a huge part. Vinyl is different from CD but both Vinyl and CDs are now considered old hat and cassettes dinosaurs - yet I gain huge pleasure from all these formats. I like to own the hard copy and hardware that will play it - digital streaming is evolving but as corporations see ways of wiping out your music by withholding licences for a particular codecs or discontinuing access to a loved streaming service - my hard copy material is playable even if I have to stoke my wood fired generator to get the electricity. I like ownership and control - so hard core old school it may be but consider how LP,s were first introduced in 1949 and still going - nothing beats the best.

Great video. Lots of good points raised. As an owner of thousands of both Vinyl and CD and having worked in both Analog and Digital formats, I can say that there are far more advantages to Cd's than Vinyl. Even Hi-Res files are great! Your listening experience is personal but Cd's have a far greater selection of music in all decades. Vinyl stopped being readily available after the big Digital overhaul in the 90's. Cd's last longer, are portable, much quieter, you can clone them and they are far cheaper with far greater liner notes and multi page booklets. A good DAC upgrades the CD and Remastered CD's often contain bonus tracks that cannot be fitted onto a vinyl record without badly affecting audio quality. I love both fornats because it's all about the MUSIC, but building the mother of all Rock Collections is far better with CD's!

Thanks much Tony; this confirmed what I have believed because my ears told me so. It's great to have the technical facts to support our preferences. Your video greatly appreciated!

this video was very informative, thank you for uploading!

I’m back into vinyl after chasing the digital carrot for 35 years. Music is back in my life like being a teenager again.

Great presentation, Tony. You convinced me that CD's have a better sound without offending my love for my 55 year collection of over 1400 vinyl records!

Thank you for a well thought out analysis. Best wishes.

Why does no one ever say that vinyl can sound as cold and lifeless as a CD? I have many examples of this in my collection. Also, what many hardcore vinyl-lovers never mention is the cartridge/stylus, which has a huge impact on what the vinyl will sound like. They never seem to tell you what they are working with. I also submit that if you think vinyl sounds warmer, whatever that means, you are actually hearing the surface noise and probably some element of the turntable. Tony does mention this.

The biggest selling point for me personally for Vinyl is that its a physical piece of art. You can ofcourse say the same about CD's, but as someone who listens to hundred thousands of hours to music, i caught myself really wanting to find that "one" song, play it over and over and move on to the next "one" song. The way you cant skip a song on a vinyl player (well, you can, but you know what i mean) and really appreciate the album of a artist opened my world up to appreciate music alot more. The "hunt" for certain vinyls is another big deal for me personally. I love the search and speaking to other music enthousiasts to get in contact with the one person who has the vinyl i so desperately want. You can ofcourse argue that you do the same with CD's ofcourse, but personally, it is a different experience.

Great video, Tony! Very informative.

Thanks. You have covered all the aspects in the comparison.

Thank you for sharing your knowledge, I found this valuable.

I’ll take a laser reading a cd flawlessly over a needle being dragged across vinyl, picking up the sound of every speck of dust that may lay in its path, any day.

I started collecting records in 1972 and unlike many people I know from that era, I kept mine. When I play them, it’s an emotional connection. It’s like getting into a time machine and going back to that time in my life. Some of the sound quality still remains but even after thorough cleaning, there is still some noise. I have some newer records too and it isn’t as much of an issue. I also have several cd’s I started collecting when they were first introduced. I play them occasionally. But these days I’m probably 80% streaming. IMO with a good quality streamer and DAC playing full cd quality or higher. It’s a great way to enjoy music. No other format lets you build playlists on the fly. Just my .02

Wow what a great explanation! This is the exact answer I was looking for. I have been using my Bose portable speaker for the longest time and the other day decided to use my old CD player and I was blown away at the quality of sound vs my Spotify song sounds. Thank you for this video!

CD > vinyl

That was actually an amazing video. Thank you!

I prefer vinyl. That said, your video is on point. These are the facts. Like what you want. That's what I do.😊

Very helpful. Thank you for explaining.

Thanks for the video, very enjoyable and good information. I look forward to future and reviewing your past content. Agaain, thanks.

CD is superior to vinyl in every possible way

Great video. The best explanation on the tube🎉

Well thought out and reasoned!

Vinyl reminds my childhood and today I feel my past while listen to vinyl which CD does not have any emotions attached to. I listen both vinyl and CD but feel better with vinyl. Once I used to listen to cassette and vinyl but again vinyl gave me far more satisfaction than I got from cassette. I understand CDs are far better media but I love vinyl. Thanks.

Thanks for your videos Tony

Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you for doing this video. Thank you for the facts explained without too many scientific jargons. This is my go-to for explaining vinyl and cds. 4 thumbs up.

Tony, your presentation here is excellently done and accurate. Adding my two-cents, perhaps the warmth listeners sense is the noise floor of the vinyl. Or, maybe listener opinion of a song played on vinyl may also be colored by the "warm" blank sound after needle drop and prior to song. That "floor" is maintained mentally throughout the music. Idk, just a thought.

I don't know why someone would chase the "analog" sound when: All the vinyl releases after 1980 done by major mastering facilities, were using Vinyl cutting gear with pre-listen Head (like Studer A80 or Neumann VMS-80). This means the signal was converted to digital and back to analog. So, after this year, no more 100% analog releases. And last, but not least, so many famous albums were recorded on digital machines (like Sony PCM 3324 launched in 1982), then digitally mastered, just to be pressed on vinyl.

2nd-3rd harmonic distortion on vinyl adds to the lovely colourations and most vinyl LP production is mastered on digital processing, so this in the purest sense isn't derived from analog.

Thank you for your detailed analysis. Human beings often rely on the phenomenon of "confirmation bias", which would be holding pre-conceived notions of how something "ought to be" and then mentally "confirming" that expectation while actually experiencing something, such as playback of a vinyl LP record. Speaking of this, a major anniversary in the industry occurred earlier this year which was ignored by the vinyl LP industry: June marked the 75th anniversary of the vinyl LP record! I think a few veteran album collectors were aware of this historic anniversary, but the industry apparently was not. Go figure!

It's like asking: which sounds better, a "clean" guitar sound or a "distorted" guitar sound? The answer is "whichever one you like." If the question is: "which sounds MORE ACCURATE, then CD, without question, wins 100% of the time, by a wide margin.

Yes, vinyl sounds better. Better is not about the most faithful reproduction, it's about feeling and warmth. And it's not the digital sampling or aliasing the problem, it's that vinyl adds extra crunchy harmonic distortion and compression, whereas digital is clinical. But even if we added a tube amp after the digital source, what's more important is with vinyl there's a fixed tactical embodied source for the reproduction. That's warm in itself. Fuck files on disk and bytes on the network.

Digital sound is superior to Analog in every way. Funny when original digital recording sound is converted into vinyl and then "vinyl audiophiles" claim that it sounds superior. I don't even mention noise, cracks and pops of vinyl. Vinyl was re introduced by Corporations to prevent piracy and some "audiophiles" swallowed the bait. CD costs say 10£ and vinyl £30- and more and that's the secret of good salesman...

cold and clear. excelent. thank you.

Great explanation. Thanks

Concise, informative, excellent.

Hi Tony I am so glad to have came across your wonderful presentation of CD V Vinyl. I am just about to delve back into to the rabbit hole of home music systems and formats. Ive not played vinyl for over 30 years, then had a decent collection of CDs, and recent times inhabited the Dark Side of streaming. I've recently been researching the latest turntables amplifiers...???? speakers etc. I was always under the impression that record always beat CD sound quality hands down !!! I also loved the look of some of the striking turntables available, but as I thought more of practical differences .... storage , PRICE etc I'm so glad that I have watched your video. CDs will suffice for my untrained but appreciative ear. Many thanks for sorting me out. 😀😀

Thank you 👍🏼

My friend spent on HIFI line, he spent about 300-600 USD per unit on Streamer, turntable, speaker, DAC, amplifier... He has new and old pressed records. We listened to the records, they sounded nice, but the sound was still not the real thing, I thought that the speaker was the weak link When I switched to the Streamer, we listened to music from Tidal, everything that was missing until then appeared, as if the whole system had changed, there was a dynamic , life, deep voice. Thank you for the nicely collected thoughts! ​

The attraction of an LP record, is similar to the attraction old European, whimsical classic cars have for collectors. There is a greater sense of thrill when the car or motorcycle, which requires special handling and care, finally delivers its ride. Same with the LP, it delivers the sound. Why not just play CDs as they last forever, never wear out, are convenient and deliver far superior dynamics? Probably because there is little involvement in the process of playing one. An LP requires your attention as the play time is about 20-25 minutes while a CD you can play the full 80 minutes as background music. I collect both, and love them equally, but there are more variants of the sound in an LP than from a CD. I believe suitcase record players are crap and that people who are into vinyl should make an effort to buy the best components they can afford, but not to the ridiculous ends I see with turntables costing more than a house, a toneram as much as a car, and a cartridge as much as a motorcycle. I've been to HiFi shows and though the equipment is impressive, I don't think the marginal improvement in playing a record is worth cracking my 401K or mortgaging my house.

Well done video. At about 7:30 you hit the real difference. If your LP is mastered from digitally recorded material, you will not get the sonic difference other than maybe some reduced highs. But when you master from analogue recorded material, there is a textural difference. Very subtle and would be lost on most casual listeners, but it is there. So if you are buying music recorded in the modern era, in all likelihood it has been recorded in a digital format. So just get yourself a good CD player (mp3's sound OK, but they are not CD quality) and a good system and just enjoy the music. The difference most are experiencing with vinyl mastered from digital is a lack of highs thus making the vinyl give the illusion of warmth. So a good graphic equalizer can do about the same thing. But for that small textural difference that few can hear, the benefits of digital for most will out weigh the benefit. Just my opinion of course. Having said that, I did love my records back in the day! Clicks, pops, scratches and all. Most pop and rock records don't have much dynamic range either by the time they are recorded and mastered, especially today. Orchestral music on the other hand can have a significant range depending on the piece. Oddly enough tho, orchestral music is where I noticed that textural thing I speak of the most. It's a balancing act. I like both formats for different reasons. Oh, and you are so right about the quality of the "record player".

Nobody is going to mention harmonics?

Bang on. This argument that vinyl sounds better has endured, in spite of all evidence to the contrary. I love my LP's, but I'm under no illusions that they sounds better than my CDs.

This is excellently and irrefutably presented, Mr van Veen, thank you. I have and still will occasionally purchase vinyl but digital is how I record and release music and it is undeniably the more robust medium. I sure do love full size vinyl album covers, tho, a big part of collecting music has gone missing since there is no need for the kind of artistic presentation album design used to offer.

Thank you for settling it. This is a technological difference Analog vs Digital

John Peel: "Somebody was trying to tell me that CDs are better than vinyl because they don't have any surface noise. I said, 'Listen, mate, life has surface noise."

Aside from what you’ve mentioned, Tony, you’ve got the individual’s ‘listening ability’ for lack of a better term. As I have learned to hear more details in audio reproduction, I notice things now that I didn’t when I started listening to music. I think this adds to someone’s preferences which, as you’ve mentioned, figures into what format a person prefers. Well presented as always. Thanks!

I have the following meaning about vinyl (which I shamelessly borrowed from »Darko Audio« here at KZfaq). But it's soooo true: I love EVRYTHING about vinyl except the sound.

When CDs were first introduced to the market they were more expensive than vinyl albums. Now they are less expensive than vinyl albums. I love my CD collection and my vinyl collection is packed away in boxes. I no longer have a working turntable. Thank you for the informative video on the matter.

Cool video. I tend to agree on the technical part but as a vinyl enthousiast I have some notes: -LPs already can sound so good that your ears aren’t missing anything when the format is concerned -vinyl masters are usually better. The choice for loudness on digital masters is made to have songs pop out on the radio but it does not work when you want to listen attentively. It is a choice of sales over quality and not my choice for sure. Theoretically, CD provides more Dynamic Range but in practice the LP almost always has more of it. This is because LPs don’t allow for a loud recording. It would skip or not fit much music as you described. This theoretical downside forces master engineers to produce better, or more realistic sound and benefits music lovers. - if you compare a same cost vinyl or cd setup, the turntable usually is better sounding than the CD player. This is certainly the case in my personal setup where a marantz cd6006 does not compare well to a thorens td 145.

Well explained, thank you. Now I don't have to argue anymore, just send a link to your video. The secret is to multitrack in Pro Tools (or whatever), and mix down to an analog one inch two track. You didn't kill yourself (and wear out the tape) doing analog multitrack, and have a big transient analog 2 track mix to make a CD from. Another gem for sound quality with CDs ids HDCD.

There's something no one ever talks about: the DAC used in the recording studio to master the vinyl is very likely much better than what you have in your hi-fi.

The term analog warmth originally came from tube powered gear that distorts differently it's a more pleasant harmonic type of distortion

There's a thing, I suppose it's called bleed through, in which you hear at the beginning of an LP track, the faint sound of the beginning of a song before it actually starts, and in essence, it's occurring throughout the track. This is most noticeable with a good pair of headphones. Of course, that doesn't occur on a CD.

I use a Maverick Tube DAC, which adds some 'warmth' back in. Either my direct CD or Lossless cuts sound great. I feed this into my SONOS system. works for me. Great Video

I'm sure you're right about the advantages of digital recording. When it comes right down to it though, I often prefer to dig out one of my LPs and give it a spin. You can compare this to the Japanese tea ceremony, in that there are a lot of actions around playing a record (that is, if you want to keep it in good condition), and a lot of associated parts, like the cover and liner notes. I'm not using a high-end turntable, but it and the cartridge mounted are adequate for enjoyable listening without excessive wear - that's 'enjoyable' as I perceive it. When I have less time or am just using music as a background, I'll throw on a CD or streamer. My choice often comes down to which version of a recording I have available. The quality of the original recording and the approach to duplication are probably big factors in the final sound of either media. I've purchased CDs that were absolutely awful, but the same can be said of some LP pressings too.

I put a record under my USB microscope. It was very interesting to see the dust. I used Elmer's glue to remove the dust. It worked well. I also noticed that the bass notes moved the track perfectly side to side which I soon realized means that the bass is mono on a record. The groove depth only changes a very very tiny amount that my microscope can't really resolve but the side to side motion is large from the bass. Between the mono bass, the constant surface noise and the compression required to make the needle stay tracking and not jumping over the grooves records are far from CD for fidelity, but they are kind of fun to own and play. I have been studying how a stylus tracks a record groove for several weeks. It is interesting to note that different parts of the stylus edge contact the record surface as slopes down, goes flat or goes up, effectively causing phase shifts or jitter. It is apparent that just the stylus tracking the groove is responsible for distortion levels reaching 5% or more at then end of a record at higher frequencies.

thank you !

I love both formats. Vinyl has a unique sound I enjoy & I enjoy the convenience & sound of CD. So I get both.

You can still love the vinyl FORMAT for what it is and acknowledge that CDs are technically superior. It's ok, the two are not mutually exclusive. This is what people don't understand.

Being a musician, studio-owner/engineer/producer for over 40 years I can only agree with this. You wont believe how many times I have had these discussions about "vinyl sounding better" etc. Don't get me wrong, I do understand that many prefer vinyl, usually because they like the compression (somethin they are used to now because it's the "radio-sound") and the harmonic distortion and of course that's a matter of taste. However, I always use the argument that vinyl is a compromise (like you point out very well!), whereas a cd can (!) sound the way it came out of the studio! So, can vinyl sound better than a cd? Yes, but then the recording on the cd was bad, the mastering wasn't good or whatever else happened. And last, but not least, you can't program an LP! 😉 BTW, I grew up with vinyl, I still have my recordcollection that I started around 1968 (both 45's and 33's) and I've always been careful with them, but I play either the cd's or use flac's on my computer. I remember the first time one of my productions would be released on cd (around 1986) and finally I heard at home what did in the studio, no compromises!!!!! But, nothing beats the sleeve and the artwork of a great LP!!! 😅 I saved your video, so I can play it the next time! 👌

Simple answer: any CD player above $200 sound more fiddle to source than any turntable (even $500,000)!! CD and Vinyl are containers of "source sound". The CD format was defined thus, no human ear can distinct between source and reproduction. I can also state that even lab will not see a difference since source is filtered before converting to 44.1K.

I am almost 61 now, and bought a great turntable some 5 years ago after only listening to digital since 1990. Reason: It brings me back to my younger days. Pure nostalgy. Vinyl can never beat high quality digital audio when you have a good DAC. Spending several thousands of dollars on an "exclusive" turntable and pick-up cartridge is nothing but madness.

I remember when cds first came out, how some artists like Yello took total advantage of the new medium. There was no question then. Of course the cd was the beginning of the miniaturization of the album cover and eventual devaluation of music overall, so its easy to understand why people care about vinyl. The recording and mixing and mastering is more important than the format ultimately. Part of why people still look back to the production standards of the mid 70s to 90s as a golden era.

Vinyl has a possible frequency response of 7Hz to 50kHz, CD is 20Hz to 20kHz. While these frequencies extend beyond the range of human hearing, some people claim they still influence the overall perception of the sound. Of course higher resolution digital can have a frequency range well beyond 50kHz, and frequencies above 20hKz would normally be filtered out before or during the mastering process. The dynamic range of vinyl is about 30% less than CD, and higher resolution digital has an even greater dynamic range. Vinyl masters are EQed with the RIAA curve which requires additional processing compared to CD. If someone wanted to hear music at the highest fidelity possible, neither CD or vinyl is the optimal choice. Blu-ray and other modern formats have a much higher resolution, but few records are available in alternative formats

Thank you, Tony. This helped me decide whether or not to get a turntable. I won't. My chief concern has been with archiving and preservation, and nothing beats digital for that. I would still love to know more about psycho-acoustics, that is, what happens in the brain after the sound wave is converted from mechanical to electric. Something must be compensating for the voids (real silences) between samples. Anyway, I liked this video a lot and will put it in one of my playlists.

I love my reel tapes, cassettes, mini discs, 8-tracks, 78's, 33's, 45's, and CDs. I also stream music! They all have good and bad aspects - but I must say my CDs sound the same today as they did when I first started buying them in 1984. "Born in The USA" and "Elvis' Golden Records" sound as PERFECT in 2024 as they did in late 1984! 40 years!?? Now I feel really old. . . . .

The only thing I like more about vinyl is that the art work is bigger. How about keepping the cd inside an vinyl album cover!

Groove is the heart!

Same thing I said when I learned how to set up turntables a couple decades ago. Then got rid of all my CDs But hey Music is soooo subjective that saying one is better than the other it’s kind of insane

To me the question is witch format is the funniest. I grew up listening to rock in the 70's in my car on a built in cassette player with a boost unit. The music was what matters. When getting home I could admire the album cover and hopefully an inlay with pictures and texts. Nowadays I can appreciate a modern car, but my 2002 car has more character and looks better.

I love the sound of CDs (thank heavens for this technology after the hissing sounds and the pain of rewinding of the cassette tape); but I also love holding and (painfully physically) playing vinyl music. I love the debates, and I love the two perspectives. Can we just agree to disagree (esp the vinyl record haters?) Thank you for this video!

Disc Makers Can you please do a video sometime on what Vinyl inch has the best overall sound quality that be great help many tanks!?

I now decide by the album art and price as to what format I buy but mostly cd.

One other vinyl variable you don't mention is the quality of the vinyl itself. Without getting too technical, vinyl is made from PVC (polyvinyl chloride). Because of the EPA and environmental changes over the years, vinyl today is not as pure as it was in the '70s. One of the world's three major vinyl suppliers had a factory fire a few years ago which caused delays in many releases, and pushed prices higher. Another variable is the US practice of recycling old vinyl with new vinyl (it's akin to using Hamburger Helper to stretch your budget.) The UK and Japan were known to produce quieter vinyl records for this very reason. Today vinyl is still a petroleum product and not always as pure as it once was. Color vinyl can be noisier than black vinyl because of the special coloring. The other big disadvantage of vinyl is that it is heat and pressure sensitive, and easily warps if not stored and transported properly. Of course if you leave a CD in the sun, it won't help it, but at least it will last longer than a box of vinyl albums stored in your trunk like the record reps used to do when they'd do their promotion trips to radio stations back in the day. Lastly, there is no such word as "vinyls", unless it's used in the possessive tense. Vinyl is a noun.

Early digital 1977-ish sounded terrible, but got much better over time.

I have given up on CDs. I play vinyl records only these days. I have some vinyl records and some CDs made from the same Soundstream digital tape and the vinyl records have shockingly good dynamic range and bass but the CDs almost sound like are a different orchestra and they are rather compressed sounding.

What I love when I play records is the output potency, sounds powerful even on a lower volume but digital sounds a little muffed like and weak so I always turn up the volume much higher.

Thank you for this video !!

I recall the first time I heard a demo of a CD player in the early 80s. It was a stunning experience. What was stunning was the fact that there was almost dead silence and then the music started. I was so accustomed to the hiss of the stylus in the groove before the music started. I was sold on CDs and it had nothing to do with other superior technical aspects of CD vs LP. To not hear that hiss was all I needed to be convinced. The salesman doing the demo showed me the CD before he put it in the player. It was significantly scratched, on purpose as part of the demo, yet it played perfectly. In a higher end CD player, scratched media will still play perfectly. By 'higher end', I don't mean a multi-thousand dollar unit; just a quality player. CDs will never compete with LPs with respect to album covers.

Imagine travelling to a world where instead of CDs we had laserdiscs for digital music. We would 3+ GB of space for high res music and most of the enjoyment and ritual of handling a vinyl.

Really enjoyed this comparison. I agree that the ritual and tactile nature of vinyl is what drives the format. You can’t beat it but as for sound it can be frustrating as hell when the sound is full of hiss and pops and clicks. Why do they not start making CD covers same as vinyl albums so that the art and all the liner notes are replicated with a CD stuck in the middle of a vinyl looking dummy. While CD covers can be good and box sets quite cool it is still too small to really appreciate. This way you can display your beautiful albums on walls etc and have the best possible sound. Just saying.

Warmth is not about zeros and ones being imperfect in the CD. It's about rolled-off highs and slightly emphasized lower-mids in the vinyl.

I became sensitive to the beaming, compressed 2 dimension quality of a lot of digital. It became too painful for my immune related ear pain. Digital has a brittle quality. That isn’t to say there are not great digital masters but I haven’t heard many. Like music itself, it’s subjective. Got my old records back out and damn they sound great. I still listen to CDs but I like the volume, experience and art. That’s the way I came up and music in a sense, has become cheap, and disposable.

It was probably among other things that the criticism of the CD sound that caused Sony and Philips to upgrade the CD to SACD, ie from PCM to DSD. Although there could also be other reasons such as better copy protection and 5.1 sound. However, there is a competitor to SACD called DVD Audio

- High-Res streaming (Qobuz, Tidal) for the sound. - LP for the romanticism and cool factor.