When I bought my first CD player in late 1987 (a Sony D10, which I still have), the growth of my record collection began to slow down and it eventually stopped. CDs sounded somewhere between the same as records and much better, depending on the album title. Only some years later did I start buying records again, not new stuff, but old, used stuff, to learn more about what I liked and dislked without having to spend a lot of money. I will never have a system without a turntable, but I will use a CD player a Lot more often for critical listening.
Well-mastered CDs played on a decent CD player or CD transport/DAC combination will sound clearer and more accurate than well-mastered vinyl LPs. The bells, cymbals, and other sharp edges of the music will stand out more on the CD, though not everyone likes that (I do). CDs also don't have the surface noise that vinyl LPs often have, or can develop over time (minor scratches). I grew up with LPs, and they were great because that's all we had. LPs are very "fiddly" though. I was constantly adjusting the anti-skate and the cartridge weighting, for best sound and equal tracking of both channels. I would use the "Discwasher" brush and fluid (we eventually learned that a combination of alcohol and distilled water worked just as well, at a fraction of the price) to get the LP nicely prepared for play. And then, we had maybe 20 minutes of music before having to flip the LP over and prepare the other side for play. As Paul says, vinyl sounds "different". It's often a warm comfy sound, where voices and other midrange sounds may sound great, but the rest seems slightly suppressed or murky. Frankly if someone finds vinyl to sound "much better" than a well-mastered CD, my feeling is that they don't have the right speakers/amp/DAC/etc. for their hearing and their preferences. The same goes for solid state vs. tubes, IMO. Some people like distortion or the suppression of reality, and that's fine. It would be great if digital/solid state systems allowed the user to experiment with the controlled introduction of distortion to suit their listening preferences (some do, to some extent), but counting on vinyl (and/or tube) systems to hit the right level of euphonic distortion is random at best. Personally I prefer CDs and solid state to the smearing of vinyl and tubes. I like speakers with AMT tweeters, for the undistorted truth. But I'm older and maybe my ears are doing the "pleasant rounding-off" now, so I can't guarantee that a 20 year old wouldn't prefer vinyl and tubes to my system.
@@petevannuys5642 You're talking about factory-recorded cassettes, rather than home made vinyl-to-cassette recordings. I've had very few factory-recorded cassettes, and they sounded quite good. Not as crisp as CDs but favorable in some ways to LPs. But cassettes were never considered to be an ideal format for music, and the cassette itself was developed for voice only, with no expectation it would be suitable for music. What's too bad is that the "Elcaset" never succeeded. The Elcaset (or El-cassette) was similar to a cassette but larger, with twice the tape width and ran at twice the speed of standard cassettes, for a theoretically significant improvement in accuracy over the standard cassette. I heard an Elcaset demonstrated in the late 1970's (the only time it was available) and I was blown away by the crisp accurate sound. But very few people bought the machines. In hindsight, Elcaset might be a media that analog enthusiasts would embrace today; I don't think they would embrace the standard cassette, with its sonic limitations. And realize that the best sounds are when cassettes are new, played on a new and high-quality machine. Over time, the play heads can get out of alignment, the magnetism on the tape can degrade or be affected by outside magnetism, the tape itself can flake or stretch, so it's not a great storage medium over time. Vinyl records and CDs don't degrade (some cheap CDRs might degrade) over time. Vinyl records do degrade with each playing, but not if they are merely in storage (unless they warp). Paul McGowan has pointed out that higher-bitrate-than-CD digital sounds even better than CD, and I can believe that. But those high-bitrate formats currently have limited availability for most recordings. So I'll take CD over LP and cassette at this point, even though I agree with Paul that analog sounds "different" and on some recordings may sound more pleasant than digital. But for most music, I feel a good CD system sounds better than a good vinyl LP one; again that's for my ears and listening preferences.
I grew up on vinyl. I like all three; vinyl, cd & streaming formats. They all are satisfactory and each has their place. My first Kenwood cd player could pause, repeat, shuffle and had a great s/n ration. Still one of my favorite cd's is Earl Klugh's Soda Fountain Shuffle. Now, I stream before any vinyl purchase due to the price. I don't take near as many "chances" like I used to.
I love the fact that you recommend your products! It means that you believe in what you are producing. I have over 400 albums, and probably as many CD's, but I grew up listening to LPs, so it is my preferred media. I recently got back into listening to my albums instead of streaming from my iTunes account and I can say that I enjoy it much more. Thanks for your expertise, and I hope you keep up the great work.
Paul you are part of great bunch of people out there in the audiophile business. Your experience and knowledge are greatly appreciated!!! Your company and its products part of an excellent range of choices out there. 👍👍
The biggest difference between CD and Vinyl is not digital vs analog ... it is in the way the two are mastered. CDs tend to be more compressed and often are limited to an inch of incomprehensibility. They are driven so hard that if they used those techniques on vinyl the record would skip. I've transcoded vinyl to digital files and the result sounds exactly the same either way. It's not the medium, it's the guys twiddling the knobs on the mastering consoles.
@@Plasticmissile The typical living/ listening room is lucky to have a 40dbSPL noise floor. Often around 50dbSPL. Threshold of Pain, ears bleed, hearing lost... is around 120dbSPL. OSHA requires hearing protection for workers around 100dbSPL to stop hearing damage. People are lucky to have a good 60db of dynamic range in their listening environments. Less than available on even the lower claims of 70db for vinyl. And you are kidding yourself if you think music producers use anywhere near that! You're lucky to get 10db of dynamic range in most pop stuff. 20db maybe on some better material. And YES! CD's are known to be loudness wars compressed!
@@Plasticmissile Do you not know what the dynamic range of a typical popular music recording is ? Less than 15 DB. The pre-ringing and post ringing inherent in digital to analog conversion has been a mess and they still don't know what to do with it and it's probably still what makes it sound off. There are a mess of different filter types to either leave it alone or move it after the transient or before the transient, or... no oversampling which can be nice but sometimes make symbols sound very splashy as if it's being hit with sand or brush rather than a stick none of it sounds as good as a record on a good, and ESPECIALLY, well set up turntable. I have three streamers and seven dax and still trying to find something I like as much as the vinyl side because of the convenience of streaming is sure is nice
@@glenncurry3041 Loudness wars? What loudness wars do we stlil have with almost all streaming platforms using audio normalisation? Why all these fanciful overexagerations about the prowess of vinyl when we've largely given up the format because of its flaws. The only real reason to use vinyl is because of romantics of it, of the ritual involved with playing it, not because it is objectively better, because it definitely isn't.
@@roderik1990 The problem with the loudness wars isn't that they were wrenching every last bit of the output from CDs ... it is that they were butchering the music to do it. Normalization only levels the playback volume. The disks themselves are still compressed and limited into incomprehensibility. Once you take the dynamics and life out of music, you ain't getting back simply by turning it down.
it's amazing how among the vinyl fanatics you can always find someone who has switched from CD to vinyl and the half-cheap system sounds so much better. cd always sounds really bad in these stories. If the system sounds so bad, the reason is not in the source (digital always sounds bad syndrome) ok, I'm a long-time CD listener who also listens to vinyl, and both sides have their advantages.
Mr. Paul, thank you! Nice video! And you have a point: we are always looking for the best… this or that, which is better. But in this case truth is that they sound different ! ❤😊 AND: you have the right to praise your products!
Sensible question, both formats (CD & Vinyl) have their strong points. Vinyl has a warmer sound and CD is more detailed and dynamic. Both are preferable to streaming!😃
Paul, I am watching your video in full analog and the dulcet tones of your voice sound velvety and warm and natural. Not thin and tinny at all like on digital system.
In 2023, in engineering, in every form of science, in the leading edge of high tech technology, in the entire recording industry, digital is the gold standard. The only place people are clinging to analogue technology is with vinyl records. Are they fun to collect and play and hunt for? Of course they are. Are they a romantic trip down memory lane? Of course they are. Do people Lovvvve collecting them? Hell yes. Do some people prefer the sound of records over Hi Res digital? Yes. Does warmer mean better? Head out to any live musical performance , any genre of music, and tell me how warm the sound was. IT ISN'T. I have a pretty serious German table and lots of great records and I love playing them but when I want to turn the lights off and relax and hear deep into a musical performance, it's my digital front end every time. All who prefer how records sound, play them and enjoy them. But when push comes to shove, the cream of the crop of recording engineers, sound mixers and mastering engineers will tell you the closest thing they have ever heard to an actual mater tape or master file, is hi res digital.
I have a Marantz Vinyl and CD player. Basically it fits my budget . Yes Paul MacGovan the sound of the Vinyl is different from the CD although I play them on the same amplifier and speakers. It what type of sound you prefer to listen to Vinyl or CD.
the thing that makes me chuckle about vinyl is most have been mastered digitaly in the studio then cut to vinyl so digital recording digital mastering then cut to analog ! vinyl has far less dynamic range available to the cutting engineers ,
To me, reference DACs, like Weiss MEDEA+ or MEDUS have always sounded better than vinyl. They are keeping the organic nature of vinyl and at the same time, they have better dynamic range and micro detail. Also, the soundstage can be as deep and wide or even better than analogue.
Hi Paul, I bought the PS Audio Sprout and a new set of new horn speakers and they sound wonderful. There was a break in period though. First of all, for the user LOL. My setup was horrible but I watched a bunch of your videos as well as others. Once my setup was correct and a nice subwoofer was added along with some time I noticed my sound progressively getting more and more liquid as well as 3D. Now I am thinking, if the Sprouts sounds this great, I wonder what the other stuff sounds like...??
Went back to vinyl records aswell it can be a great thing, the experience is great aswell. Not all records are great though and sometimes the last song sounds destorted but that can be my low end turntable setup. The clearity of a CD can be good aswell, I do not have a streamer other than .Flac direct from the computer vis Toslink.
Yes, unfortunately it seems the better the system the more you will notice how poorly some records are made. But then can appreciate the really good ones! Inner groove distortions are a typical problem. The tone arm swing from the pivot point causes the cartridge to be misaligned at different points across the record. Towards the inner grooves tends to be the worst . Longer arms have less of this distortion because the swing is closer to straight across. Adjusting the stylus to pivot length changes where and how much distortion. There are "setup protractors" that allow you to measure and align it better.
I quit listening to whole albums before 2010. I've been choosing magical songs but not albums. There are not more than 20 albums in music which I love listening without skipping a song. You can't go with the vinyl if you prefer listening to your own play list arranged with songs.
It's not the CD format itself but the music on it! vinyl recording has limitations so you can't have too much bass or treble or too high a volume. but on a music CD you have no limitations, which leads to musicians and studios going beyond what is good sound, this destroys the sound quality of the music on a CD disc
I think the biggest problem is not being analog or digital. But whether it was well or poorly recorded and mastered and in the case of vinyl, being well pressed as well. Also, something that often happens with CDs is that many are extremely poorly made and lack dynamics.
In all of my years I only heard one cd player that I actually liked and it’s the ayre cx7e. If ps audio can do that, and it’s not super expensive, I will drag my cd collection back from the attic 😁
Were those big speakers in the apartment on a temporary basis? Seems like they would be a waste of space in the apartment and the apartment would be a waste of potential in the speakers.
Looking for a killer great sounding DAC? MSB Technology. I would be interested in hearing our host's opinion on how the various MSB DAC models compare to PS Audio's various DAC models.
How could CD's or Streaming ever sound like vinyl, it's such a completely different medium. i have found with a little EQ you can make CD's and streaming sound much warmer, more inviting if that's a correct term to use. For me after awhile i go back to a more neutral setting because i now more enjoy the dynamics and clarity brought out in digital as long as you have the correct synergy between speakers and amps. Since it's so revealing that synergy is a little harder to find.
Hi Paul... Not an analog letter but a digital question, so I hope You'll love it just as much 😇 I'm thinking abaout buying a DAC/AMP combo and can't jump over the thing of digital vs analog volume control knobs... In the past analog knobs have been causing channel imbalance in the proces of adjusting the volume while the digital ones resolve the issue by correcting all those volume levels and all... So how do You see it and what is it today? For instance iFi Audio is all about analog volume knobs... Why is that when they can just get digital and go on like normal audio gear companies? Should We all fear the channel imbalance of the iFi volume knobs or is it a thing of the past? THX in advance kind sir Paul 🤗
YT is 256 AAC. As long as the YT uploaders do a direct cable feed from the source to a software program, then do the YT upload. I did that with my upload, direct feed to iMovie then uploaded it to YT, recorded on my iPhone. It came out better than I expected it would since it was an experimental project that I had no idea what the heck I was doing..😀😀😀 In fact, I cannot remember now how I did it..🤔🙄🥹
@@davidfromamerica1871 I know about Opus 251 codec that YT uses. But may be it's 256 AAC. Anyway, Hi-res music on YT sounds much better on my receiver than any CD I own.
@@НинадаТарапицца I have using YT for music since 2004 before Google bought it I think Google bought YT in 2005..?? I have always been a YT aficionado all these years..😀❤️👍🤗
I'd say that a good part of it is mastering- same for the typical superiority of high-res digital vs redbook- many/most of the hi-res releases have been chosen for/redone with better mastering than redbook releases- and vinyl releases, for example, often have greater preservation of dynamic range in their masterings, vs redbook alternatives- but part of it the difference IMO is also in the basic differences in the formats and technologies.
Depends on how you look at this. At what level? Sound is by definition analog. All sound sources either start as physical analog or are converted to analog by mechanical transducers. Sound is transmitted to us mechanically analog. Our auditory system is analog. We are talking about storage and recall. Is it, will it ever be possible for the continuous analog wave signal to be digitized, stored and transcoded back with no "audible" distortions? If cables (AC, speaker,...), power conditioning, ... do actually make audible differences and we've yet to see standardized measurements proving this, how can we claim to know that the digital reproduction process is accurate? Just because it also passes the typical steady state sinewave tests?
_"We are talking about storage and recall. Is it, will it ever be possible for the continuous analog wave signal to be digitized, stored and transcoded back with no "audible" distortions? "_ It's done all the time. Most mixing and mastering consoles are digital and are used to source the "perfect" masters of vinyl pressings. Know it or not, you're listening to digitally recorded music all the time. Secondly ... Speakers are not the only use for PCM signalling. It is also used in industrial controls where precise positioning is needed in servos and motor controls (most of which are driven by Class D amplification, btw). These systems can position a 30 pound pickup grasp within a thousandth of an inch with total accuracy. Don't be thinking there's something special about audio... on the scale of things it's actually some pretty trivial technology.
@@Douglas_Blake_579 While transcoding to digital and then processing in it, to then transcode back to analog is "𝙙𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙖𝙡𝙡 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙩𝙞𝙢𝙚". That still does not mean it HAS TO! Audio never HAS to go through digital at any point ever. Or we would never have heard anything until after digital audio was invented! AFA the lie of "𝑢𝑠𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑠𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑐𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 "𝒑𝙚𝒓𝙛𝒆𝙘𝒕" 𝑚𝑎𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑣𝑖𝑛𝑦𝑙 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑠". Ask MoFi about their collapse after it was proven they tried to hide digital processing in some releases. Reviewers had been complaining about it before it was known. Michael Fremer posted reviews of new MoFi releases stating they sounded "digital" when he did not know they were in fact digitally processed. I can tell the difference immediately. I KNOW when I am listening to digital. And in my main system it never happens! Turntable only to speakers is pure analog. With yes the occasional digitally mastered record when no good option exists. And most Class D amps use Pulse WIDTH, PWM! Definitely NOT Pulse CODE, PCM! Occasionally Pulse COUNT, PCM. Best used only for subs. Too harsh and flat for mids and highs!
@@glenncurry3041 _" Audio never HAS to go through digital at any point ever. Or we would never have heard anything until after digital audio was invented! "_ You're right it doesn't _have_ to. But one thing you can take to the bank: a lot of modern processing was never heard before digital came along. A good DAW can do things and fix problems the engineers never imagined were possible until they came along. It may not be necessary but in the right hands it is significantly better. _"And most Class D amps use Pulse WIDTH, PWM! Definitely NOT Pulse CODE, PCM! Occasionally Pulse COUNT, PCM. Best used only for subs. Too harsh and flat for mids and highs!"_ Yes I know how Class-D amplifiers and PWM work. I design them. You're a smart guy, with his finger of the hobby's pulse. I'm sure you know that most of the best amplifiers currently in production are Class-D. But I was very specific that they were using PCM *Signalling* ... as in over low power digital cables to direct servo controllers where and how to place the their tools. That they use PWM amplifiers was merely a side mention. _"Ask MoFi about their collapse after it was proven they tried to hide digital processing in some releases. "_ Yeah I watched that with some interest. All I saw was a bunch of crotchety old anachronisms getting all bent out of shape over nothing. The fact is that you're unlikely to find any music on any medium that didn't go through digital processing at some point. In the end it turns out MoFi had transferred some old masters to DSD files to protect them, rather than trying to play 50 and 60 year old celluloid tapes that were on the verge of falling apart in their hands. I would have done exactly the same thing. If you ask me, they did you guys a favour... because now that music will never be lost.
@@Douglas_Blake_579 WOW! How hilarious! Mindless tautology? "a lot of modern processing was never heard before digital came along." And a lot of old analog processing was heard back in the day! Hahahahaha.... SAD!
@@Douglas_Blake_579 "Speakers are not the only use for PCM signalling"... "as in over low power digital cables to direct servo controllers" SPEAKER inputs NEVER see PCM! PCM has absolutely no connection to speakers! PCM is removed from any signal processing well before the output stage to the speakers even in Class D! "Yes I know how Class-D amplifiers and PWM work." Obviously NOT! " I'm sure you know that most of the best amplifiers currently in production are Class-D." Not a single one of the top Audiophile amps uses Class D! e.g. PS Audio only uses Class D in it's budget line products! Krell, Gryphon, D'Agostino ... laugh at such ignorance!
@@qetuR When we mix and master music unless its onto tape the master file is a WAV file or an AIFF on mac less frequently. It's all of the data uncompressed straight from your DAW of choice. I'm sure other uncompressed formats exist but if they are not supported by recording software they wont be used much. Im talking uncompressed files here not so called lossless files like flac that are compressed from the original WAV's.
No need to pay a premium. Wav is the file that comes out of the studio. It’s just the raw audio with a small chunk of metadata saying what samplerate to play it at. Not proprietary at all. And no extra work for anyone. Anything that isn’t a .wav (or the equivalent .aif) is just someone trying to stick their greedy, filthy hands in there.
It seems that modern mixes are made for the masses. They own midfi and low powered amps. Most modern mixes have been made to boost 45-50hz and 10-12khz. It makes midfi systems sound better..but those of us with flat systems can hear many problems.. I compared modern remix cd with old cd original master done early in the 90s. No comparison..the new one is garbage.. yes..i love my turntable.. but modern vinyl isnt the same as vintage .. PAUL KNOWS THIS..and started octave records
Why should you apologize for the hardware you build? You put your name on it, have competent Engineering Staff that produce a competitive product, and this is YOUR channel.
You know what; there must not be very many people who have truly great sound. When I listen to my system, be it analog or digital, it's so involving that you don't care if it's analog or digital. You also don't care whether it's 100% realism or not, when the sound is that spooky real and enjoyable. It must be people who've made major screw ups in their choices, setup etc. that are the ones that worry so much whether it's analog or digital. Not playing anything but digital for a month, and then going back to lps, you are met with the stark realization of how noisy and flawed vinyl is. Staying away from comment sections for a month, and then going back makes you realize how you had no life; really.
I don't always agree with everything Paul says, but as a Hi-Fi enthusiast of 44 years, I have to say I have experienced "screamy and harsh" from CDs, but also in the early days, from vinyl too! ... "Brightness" it's called, and it's very unpleasant and fatiguing!
Add a tube buffer, between your dac & your amplifier, that will take away the harsh sound from digital, I've just done a major upgrade to my Musical fidelity X10-D tube buffer, & it gives my digital a nice warm sound, closer to analogue, here's a link to my video ruclips.net/video/bYOKfM5O9FI/видео.htmlsi=rjbjnOHAeXc29nlc
It's a bit ironic that those calling themselves purists often like music with extra room reflections, amplifiers with even harmonic tube distortion and vinyl music with lots of noise and wow and flutter. Perhaps our brain perceives realism as something less "signal perfect". To some degree the sense of music being more live is about these imperfections. I find myself enjoying some of this extra added imperfection for certain music while other music won't benefit from it.
I want to hear faithful reproductions of the original recording The digital medium is more capable of doing that. if you like the color and sound that vinyl can give you, fine, Dragging a pointy rock through a plastic groove susceptible to dust dirt and scratches will never be a superior medium It’s like comparing a horse and buggy to a BMW
there is a distinction between medium & message (content). while a medium may be touted as "technically superior" (by some standard), the content may present itself distinctly via alternative medium(s). for the consumer of the content via an integrated system (from source to one's specific cognition in time & place) the choice is personal - even emotional.
I love watching Pauls videos , He is great, But he does not get vinyl has magic and they can spend a fortune to improve digital but they can never match vinyl...........
The whole industry has been spinning its wheels for decades, trying to reproduce the analogue experience people enjoyed 40 years ago and can be had on the vintage market for far less.
Have never heard PS Audio's cd transport and DAC, but I'm sure they're wonderful. Beyond that, I've heard good things about Border Patrol DACS; Ayre, Aesthetix, and Luxman (all much more expensive than Border Patrol) all make DACS and disc players and/or DACS that are more analogue-sounding; and obviously there are other digital equipment lines with a reputation for sounding more like analogue than certain others.
The reason is simple and doesn't take a magician to figure this out. Digital falsifies the sound, the original sound of the instruments and analog preserves it. So yes a first class or even an average sounding turntable with a natural sounding recording will sound more like the sounds of the real thing whereas digital no matter how you spend or complicated you will have a sound uniquely artificial which does not mimic the sound timbre of the original instrument. It is a fact of our life now unfortunately.
No true at all. With digital you can make an audibly indistinguishable copy of the original analog. But you cannot do it vice versa. An analog copy will only add noise and distortion - which of course you may like. This is trivially easy to demonstrate.
Masters is on tapes, vinyl is a lossy copy of that, digital is a lossless copy of the same tape.. Cd and tapes are more the same. + sacd player 150$, a good turntabel 500$+ phono pre, its just not Worth it.
Sounds like the guy has a crappy overpriced CD system .. with the right cd transport/dac combo, you can certainly have a “good” compact disc compete with a “good” vinyl disc employing a “good” isolated record player/arm/cartridge/stylus/phono preamp. These days the argument is ridiculous, because it’s difficult to make the comparison in the first place due to all the unaccounted for variables and the two technologies being a good half century apart! The greatest “difference” is the pros and cons of each by default. CD’s are more convenient, easier to preserve, and consume less space, and are more more noise free, and being optically read, the disc is isolated. Vinyl albums have artwork and text size advantages, but can’t compete with the CD’s pros.
I remember hearing the clicks and pops of my albums. Years later, I’d give the same albums a spin and remember those clicks and pops.
When I bought my first CD player in late 1987 (a Sony D10, which I still have),
the growth of my record collection began to slow down and it eventually stopped.
CDs sounded somewhere between the same as records and much better, depending on the album title.
Only some years later did I start buying records again, not new stuff, but old, used stuff,
to learn more about what I liked and dislked without having to spend a lot of money.
I will never have a system without a turntable, but I will use a CD player a Lot more often for critical listening.
If you want a dac that sounds more "analogue" I'd recommend going for something that uses R2R rather than the more common delta sigma chips.
Paul is a great 😊 gentleman! I love his informative short videos!
Well-mastered CDs played on a decent CD player or CD transport/DAC combination will sound clearer and more accurate than well-mastered vinyl LPs. The bells, cymbals, and other sharp edges of the music will stand out more on the CD, though not everyone likes that (I do).
CDs also don't have the surface noise that vinyl LPs often have, or can develop over time (minor scratches). I grew up with LPs, and they were great because that's all we had. LPs are very "fiddly" though. I was constantly adjusting the anti-skate and the cartridge weighting, for best sound and equal tracking of both channels. I would use the "Discwasher" brush and fluid (we eventually learned that a combination of alcohol and distilled water worked just as well, at a fraction of the price) to get the LP nicely prepared for play. And then, we had maybe 20 minutes of music before having to flip the LP over and prepare the other side for play.
As Paul says, vinyl sounds "different". It's often a warm comfy sound, where voices and other midrange sounds may sound great, but the rest seems slightly suppressed or murky. Frankly if someone finds vinyl to sound "much better" than a well-mastered CD, my feeling is that they don't have the right speakers/amp/DAC/etc. for their hearing and their preferences. The same goes for solid state vs. tubes, IMO. Some people like distortion or the suppression of reality, and that's fine.
It would be great if digital/solid state systems allowed the user to experiment with the controlled introduction of distortion to suit their listening preferences (some do, to some extent), but counting on vinyl (and/or tube) systems to hit the right level of euphonic distortion is random at best.
Personally I prefer CDs and solid state to the smearing of vinyl and tubes. I like speakers with AMT tweeters, for the undistorted truth. But I'm older and maybe my ears are doing the "pleasant rounding-off" now, so I can't guarantee that a 20 year old wouldn't prefer vinyl and tubes to my system.
How do example if cassette tape 📼 compare with other formats ?
@@petevannuys5642 You're talking about factory-recorded cassettes, rather than home made vinyl-to-cassette recordings. I've had very few factory-recorded cassettes, and they sounded quite good. Not as crisp as CDs but favorable in some ways to LPs.
But cassettes were never considered to be an ideal format for music, and the cassette itself was developed for voice only, with no expectation it would be suitable for music. What's too bad is that the "Elcaset" never succeeded. The Elcaset (or El-cassette) was similar to a cassette but larger, with twice the tape width and ran at twice the speed of standard cassettes, for a theoretically significant improvement in accuracy over the standard cassette.
I heard an Elcaset demonstrated in the late 1970's (the only time it was available) and I was blown away by the crisp accurate sound. But very few people bought the machines. In hindsight, Elcaset might be a media that analog enthusiasts would embrace today; I don't think they would embrace the standard cassette, with its sonic limitations.
And realize that the best sounds are when cassettes are new, played on a new and high-quality machine. Over time, the play heads can get out of alignment, the magnetism on the tape can degrade or be affected by outside magnetism, the tape itself can flake or stretch, so it's not a great storage medium over time. Vinyl records and CDs don't degrade (some cheap CDRs might degrade) over time. Vinyl records do degrade with each playing, but not if they are merely in storage (unless they warp).
Paul McGowan has pointed out that higher-bitrate-than-CD digital sounds even better than CD, and I can believe that. But those high-bitrate formats currently have limited availability for most recordings. So I'll take CD over LP and cassette at this point, even though I agree with Paul that analog sounds "different" and on some recordings may sound more pleasant than digital. But for most music, I feel a good CD system sounds better than a good vinyl LP one; again that's for my ears and listening preferences.
I grew up on vinyl. I like all three; vinyl, cd & streaming formats. They all are satisfactory and each has their place. My first Kenwood cd player could pause, repeat, shuffle and had a great s/n ration. Still one of my favorite cd's is Earl Klugh's Soda Fountain Shuffle. Now, I stream before any vinyl purchase due to the price. I don't take near as many "chances" like I used to.
I love the fact that you recommend your products! It means that you believe in what you are producing. I have over 400 albums, and probably as many CD's, but I grew up listening to LPs, so it is my preferred media. I recently got back into listening to my albums instead of streaming from my iTunes account and I can say that I enjoy it much more. Thanks for your expertise, and I hope you keep up the great work.
Paul you are part of great bunch of people out there in the audiophile business. Your experience and knowledge are greatly appreciated!!! Your company and its products part of an excellent range of choices out there. 👍👍
The biggest difference between CD and Vinyl is not digital vs analog ... it is in the way the two are mastered. CDs tend to be more compressed and often are limited to an inch of incomprehensibility. They are driven so hard that if they used those techniques on vinyl the record would skip.
I've transcoded vinyl to digital files and the result sounds exactly the same either way. It's not the medium, it's the guys twiddling the knobs on the mastering consoles.
ruclips.net/video/RbAL7RH1320/видео.htmlsi=VZ8wwVSxZNocqtbv
@@Plasticmissile The typical living/ listening room is lucky to have a 40dbSPL noise floor. Often around 50dbSPL. Threshold of Pain, ears bleed, hearing lost... is around 120dbSPL. OSHA requires hearing protection for workers around 100dbSPL to stop hearing damage. People are lucky to have a good 60db of dynamic range in their listening environments. Less than available on even the lower claims of 70db for vinyl.
And you are kidding yourself if you think music producers use anywhere near that! You're lucky to get 10db of dynamic range in most pop stuff. 20db maybe on some better material. And YES! CD's are known to be loudness wars compressed!
@@Plasticmissile
Do you not know what the dynamic range of a typical popular music recording is ? Less than 15 DB. The pre-ringing and post ringing inherent in digital to analog conversion has been a mess and they still don't know what to do with it and it's probably still what makes it sound off. There are a mess of different filter types to either leave it alone or move it after the transient or before the transient, or... no oversampling which can be nice but sometimes make symbols sound very splashy as if it's being hit with sand or brush rather than a stick none of it sounds as good as a record on a good, and ESPECIALLY, well set up turntable. I have three streamers and seven dax and still trying to find something I like as much as the vinyl side because of the convenience of streaming is sure is nice
@@glenncurry3041 Loudness wars? What loudness wars do we stlil have with almost all streaming platforms using audio normalisation?
Why all these fanciful overexagerations about the prowess of vinyl when we've largely given up the format because of its flaws.
The only real reason to use vinyl is because of romantics of it, of the ritual involved with playing it, not because it is objectively better, because it definitely isn't.
@@roderik1990
The problem with the loudness wars isn't that they were wrenching every last bit of the output from CDs ... it is that they were butchering the music to do it. Normalization only levels the playback volume. The disks themselves are still compressed and limited into incomprehensibility. Once you take the dynamics and life out of music, you ain't getting back simply by turning it down.
it's amazing how among the vinyl fanatics you can always find someone who has switched from CD to vinyl and the half-cheap system sounds so much better. cd always sounds really bad in these stories.
If the system sounds so bad, the reason is not in the source (digital always sounds bad syndrome)
ok, I'm a long-time CD listener who also listens to vinyl, and both sides have their advantages.
Correct, it is a format, not a sound; how it is implemented is everything
Mr. Paul, thank you! Nice video! And you have a point: we are always looking for the best… this or that, which is better. But in this case truth is that they sound different ! ❤😊 AND: you have the right to praise your products!
GM ☕️from Toronto.
The only qualifier I’ve had regarding sources and how a system sounds if it’s good ..of if YOU like it .
Great video 👍
Sensible question, both formats (CD & Vinyl) have their strong points. Vinyl has a warmer sound and CD is more detailed and dynamic. Both are preferable to streaming!😃
Paul, I am watching your video in full analog and the dulcet tones of your voice sound velvety and warm and natural. Not thin and tinny at all like on digital system.
I wonder if the tiny NYC apartment he was referring to was Steve Gutenberg's?
who?
I would advise a tube-preamp in combo with the dac, for this guy.
In 2023, in engineering, in every form of science, in the leading edge of high tech technology, in the entire recording industry, digital is the gold standard.
The only place people are clinging to analogue technology is with vinyl records.
Are they fun to collect and play and hunt for? Of course they are. Are they a romantic trip down memory lane? Of course they are. Do people Lovvvve collecting them? Hell yes. Do some people prefer the sound of records over Hi Res digital? Yes.
Does warmer mean better? Head out to any live musical performance , any genre of music, and tell me how warm the sound was. IT ISN'T.
I have a pretty serious German table and lots of great records and I love playing them but when I want to turn the lights off and relax and hear deep into a musical performance, it's my digital front end every time.
All who prefer how records sound, play them and enjoy them. But when push comes to shove, the cream of the crop of recording engineers, sound mixers and mastering engineers will tell you the closest thing they have ever heard to an actual mater tape or master file, is hi res digital.
possibly, if its digital.
@@XX-iy4lx
You don't have to justify anything Paul, we know that you do what you do because you love it as much as we do.
I have a Marantz Vinyl and CD player. Basically it fits my budget . Yes Paul MacGovan the sound of the Vinyl is different from the CD although I play them on the same amplifier and speakers. It what type of sound you prefer to listen to Vinyl or CD.
the thing that makes me chuckle about vinyl is most have been mastered digitaly in the studio then cut to vinyl so digital recording digital mastering then cut to analog ! vinyl has far less dynamic range available to the cutting engineers ,
To me, reference DACs, like Weiss MEDEA+ or MEDUS have always sounded better than vinyl. They are keeping the organic nature of vinyl and at the same time, they have better dynamic range and micro detail. Also, the soundstage can be as deep and wide or even better than analogue.
Wayyyyy above my budget.
I am in doubt between the Audio Note DAC 0.1x and the Denafrips Pontus 12th.
As much as I try to love digital, and I have a PS Audio DAC, analog just sounds right, particularly vinyl and tubes!
Hi Paul, I bought the PS Audio Sprout and a new set of new horn speakers and they sound wonderful. There was a break in period though. First of all, for the user LOL. My setup was horrible but I watched a bunch of your videos as well as others. Once my setup was correct and a nice subwoofer was added along with some time I noticed my sound progressively getting more and more liquid as well as 3D. Now I am thinking, if the Sprouts sounds this great, I wonder what the other stuff sounds like...??
I wonder what the digital rig is of the chap who posed the question? If he enjoys his Rega turntable,he might get along OK with Rega's CD players.
Went back to vinyl records aswell it can be a great thing, the experience is great aswell. Not all records are great though and sometimes the last song sounds destorted but that can be my low end turntable setup. The clearity of a CD can be good aswell, I do not have a streamer other than .Flac direct from the computer vis Toslink.
Yes, unfortunately it seems the better the system the more you will notice how poorly some records are made. But then can appreciate the really good ones!
Inner groove distortions are a typical problem. The tone arm swing from the pivot point causes the cartridge to be misaligned at different points across the record. Towards the inner grooves tends to be the worst . Longer arms have less of this distortion because the swing is closer to straight across. Adjusting the stylus to pivot length changes where and how much distortion. There are "setup protractors" that allow you to measure and align it better.
I love my music server/DAC loaded with flac files. But there's something special about analog so I use my Teac A-3340S quite a bit.❤
I quit listening to whole albums before 2010. I've been choosing magical songs but not albums. There are not more than 20 albums in music which I love listening without skipping a song. You can't go with the vinyl if you prefer listening to your own play list arranged with songs.
It's not the CD format itself but the music on it! vinyl recording has limitations so you can't have too much bass or treble or too high a volume. but on a music CD you have no limitations, which leads to musicians and studios going beyond what is good sound, this destroys the sound quality of the music on a CD disc
I can't wait until you and Chris reveal the Aspen FR3000 Reference Line Array.
No replacement like displacement. I have 4 IRS IIIa's in a 18X20 room. Never sounded better.
I think the biggest problem is not being analog or digital. But whether it was well or poorly recorded and mastered and in the case of vinyl, being well pressed as well. Also, something that often happens with CDs is that many are extremely poorly made and lack dynamics.
In all of my years I only heard one cd player that I actually liked and it’s the ayre cx7e. If ps audio can do that, and it’s not super expensive, I will drag my cd collection back from the attic 😁
(Also an entry level rega is easily beaten. Want to have a cheap laugh? Score a Pioneer PL112D)
paul would ps ever consider making multitrack or master recorder/reproducers for the musician world? aka just +4dbu = -18dbfs
Just a reminder, vinyls are filled with CD audio since 2000s. It just a manual setup and hardware experiment.
Get a vintage Yamaha receiver with loudness control! You can really control the harshness, brightness with it.
Were those big speakers in the apartment on a temporary basis?
Seems like they would be a waste of space in the apartment and the apartment would be a waste of potential in the speakers.
People do some pretty weird stuff, my friend. This should not surprise you.
I had one client with a pair of Klipschorns in his bedroom.
Looking for a killer great sounding DAC?
MSB Technology.
I would be interested in hearing our host's opinion on how the various MSB DAC models compare to PS Audio's various DAC models.
i miss the vinylizer - a device you put your needle on a transducer with inverted riaa eq.
Sadly that does not exist 😭
whats up, PS Audio?
Fun fact: loads of vinyl has digital mastered recording on it.
How could CD's or Streaming ever sound like vinyl, it's such a completely different medium. i have found with a little EQ you can make CD's and streaming sound much warmer, more inviting if that's a correct term to use. For me after awhile i go back to a more neutral setting because i now more enjoy the dynamics and clarity brought out in digital as long as you have the correct synergy between speakers and amps. Since it's so revealing that synergy is a little harder to find.
Hi Paul... Not an analog letter but a digital question, so I hope You'll love it just as much 😇 I'm thinking abaout buying a DAC/AMP combo and can't jump over the thing of digital vs analog volume control knobs... In the past analog knobs have been causing channel imbalance in the proces of adjusting the volume while the digital ones resolve the issue by correcting all those volume levels and all... So how do You see it and what is it today? For instance iFi Audio is all about analog volume knobs... Why is that when they can just get digital and go on like normal audio gear companies? Should We all fear the channel imbalance of the iFi volume knobs or is it a thing of the past? THX in advance kind sir Paul 🤗
Beauty of music is in the ears of the beholder. 🙂
I like vinyl rips on YT. It works great with the YT codecs.
CD sound is bland and sterile.
YT is 256 AAC.
As long as the YT uploaders do a direct cable feed from the source to a software program, then do the YT upload. I did that with my upload, direct feed to iMovie then uploaded it to YT, recorded on my iPhone.
It came out better than I expected it would since it was an experimental project that I had no idea what the heck I was doing..😀😀😀
In fact, I cannot remember now how I did it..🤔🙄🥹
@@davidfromamerica1871 I know about Opus 251 codec that YT uses. But may be it's 256 AAC. Anyway, Hi-res music on YT sounds much better on my receiver than any CD I own.
@@НинадаТарапицца
I have using YT for music since 2004 before Google bought it I think Google bought YT in 2005..??
I have always been a YT aficionado all these years..😀❤️👍🤗
Its ALL about how it was mastered. Most stuff 80s up was digital source... Going to be records that are better, and cd's that are better.
I'd say that a good part of it is mastering- same for the typical superiority of high-res digital vs redbook- many/most of the hi-res releases have been chosen for/redone with better mastering than redbook releases- and vinyl releases, for example, often have greater preservation of dynamic range in their masterings, vs redbook alternatives- but part of it the difference IMO is also in the basic differences in the formats and technologies.
Depends on how you look at this. At what level? Sound is by definition analog. All sound sources either start as physical analog or are converted to analog by mechanical transducers. Sound is transmitted to us mechanically analog. Our auditory system is analog.
We are talking about storage and recall. Is it, will it ever be possible for the continuous analog wave signal to be digitized, stored and transcoded back with no "audible" distortions?
If cables (AC, speaker,...), power conditioning, ... do actually make audible differences and we've yet to see standardized measurements proving this, how can we claim to know that the digital reproduction process is accurate? Just because it also passes the typical steady state sinewave tests?
_"We are talking about storage and recall. Is it, will it ever be possible for the continuous analog wave signal to be digitized, stored and transcoded back with no "audible" distortions? "_
It's done all the time. Most mixing and mastering consoles are digital and are used to source the "perfect" masters of vinyl pressings. Know it or not, you're listening to digitally recorded music all the time.
Secondly ... Speakers are not the only use for PCM signalling. It is also used in industrial controls where precise positioning is needed in servos and motor controls (most of which are driven by Class D amplification, btw). These systems can position a 30 pound pickup grasp within a thousandth of an inch with total accuracy.
Don't be thinking there's something special about audio... on the scale of things it's actually some pretty trivial technology.
@@Douglas_Blake_579 While transcoding to digital and then processing in it, to then transcode back to analog is "𝙙𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙖𝙡𝙡 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙩𝙞𝙢𝙚". That still does not mean it HAS TO!
Audio never HAS to go through digital at any point ever. Or we would never have heard anything until after digital audio was invented!
AFA the lie of "𝑢𝑠𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑠𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑐𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 "𝒑𝙚𝒓𝙛𝒆𝙘𝒕" 𝑚𝑎𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑣𝑖𝑛𝑦𝑙 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑠". Ask MoFi about their collapse after it was proven they tried to hide digital processing in some releases. Reviewers had been complaining about it before it was known. Michael Fremer posted reviews of new MoFi releases stating they sounded "digital" when he did not know they were in fact digitally processed. I can tell the difference immediately. I KNOW when I am listening to digital. And in my main system it never happens! Turntable only to speakers is pure analog. With yes the occasional digitally mastered record when no good option exists.
And most Class D amps use Pulse WIDTH, PWM! Definitely NOT Pulse CODE, PCM! Occasionally Pulse COUNT, PCM. Best used only for subs. Too harsh and flat for mids and highs!
@@glenncurry3041
_" Audio never HAS to go through digital at any point ever. Or we would never have heard anything until after digital audio was invented! "_
You're right it doesn't _have_ to. But one thing you can take to the bank: a lot of modern processing was never heard before digital came along. A good DAW can do things and fix problems the engineers never imagined were possible until they came along. It may not be necessary but in the right hands it is significantly better.
_"And most Class D amps use Pulse WIDTH, PWM! Definitely NOT Pulse CODE, PCM! Occasionally Pulse COUNT, PCM. Best used only for subs. Too harsh and flat for mids and highs!"_
Yes I know how Class-D amplifiers and PWM work. I design them.
You're a smart guy, with his finger of the hobby's pulse. I'm sure you know that most of the best amplifiers currently in production are Class-D.
But I was very specific that they were using PCM *Signalling* ... as in over low power digital cables to direct servo controllers where and how to place the their tools. That they use PWM amplifiers was merely a side mention.
_"Ask MoFi about their collapse after it was proven they tried to hide digital processing in some releases. "_
Yeah I watched that with some interest. All I saw was a bunch of crotchety old anachronisms getting all bent out of shape over nothing. The fact is that you're unlikely to find any music on any medium that didn't go through digital processing at some point.
In the end it turns out MoFi had transferred some old masters to DSD files to protect them, rather than trying to play 50 and 60 year old celluloid tapes that were on the verge of falling apart in their hands. I would have done exactly the same thing. If you ask me, they did you guys a favour... because now that music will never be lost.
@@Douglas_Blake_579 WOW! How hilarious! Mindless tautology? "a lot of modern processing was never heard before digital came along." And a lot of old analog processing was heard back in the day! Hahahahaha.... SAD!
@@Douglas_Blake_579 "Speakers are not the only use for PCM signalling"... "as in over low power digital cables to direct servo controllers"
SPEAKER inputs NEVER see PCM! PCM has absolutely no connection to speakers! PCM is removed from any signal processing well before the output stage to the speakers even in Class D!
"Yes I know how Class-D amplifiers and PWM work."
Obviously NOT!
" I'm sure you know that most of the best amplifiers currently in production are Class-D."
Not a single one of the top Audiophile amps uses Class D! e.g. PS Audio only uses Class D in it's budget line products! Krell, Gryphon, D'Agostino ... laugh at such ignorance!
I know the quality of your stuff you made the electronic parts used in martin logan speaker witch i own a pair
I wish more artist would release the uncompressed WAV files. I would pay a premium for that.
Why .wav? I'd much rather get an open source format and container.
@@qetuR When we mix and master music unless its onto tape the master file is a WAV file or an AIFF on mac less frequently. It's all of the data uncompressed straight from your DAW of choice. I'm sure other uncompressed formats exist but if they are not supported by recording software they wont be used much. Im talking uncompressed files here not so called lossless files like flac that are compressed from the original WAV's.
No need to pay a premium. Wav is the file that comes out of the studio. It’s just the raw audio with a small chunk of metadata saying what samplerate to play it at. Not proprietary at all. And no extra work for anyone. Anything that isn’t a .wav (or the equivalent .aif) is just someone trying to stick their greedy, filthy hands in there.
The only reason i put on an occasional cd is when i don't feel like getting up every 20 minutes
absofreakinlutely! digital is a wonderful option for those types of needs.
It seems that modern mixes are made for the masses. They own midfi and low powered amps. Most modern mixes have been made to boost 45-50hz and 10-12khz. It makes midfi systems sound better..but those of us with flat systems can hear many problems.. I compared modern remix cd with old cd original master done early in the 90s. No comparison..the new one is garbage.. yes..i love my turntable.. but modern vinyl isnt the same as vintage .. PAUL KNOWS THIS..and started octave records
Pozdrawiam Miłosza! 😊
Why should you apologize for the hardware you build? You put your name on it, have competent Engineering Staff that produce a competitive product, and this is YOUR channel.
You know what; there must not be very many people who have truly great sound. When I listen to my system, be it analog or digital, it's so involving that you don't care if it's analog or digital. You also don't care whether it's 100% realism or not, when the sound is that spooky real and enjoyable. It must be people who've made major screw ups in their choices, setup etc. that are the ones that worry so much whether it's analog or digital.
Not playing anything but digital for a month, and then going back to lps, you are met with the stark realization of how noisy and flawed vinyl is. Staying away from comment sections for a month, and then going back makes you realize how you had no life; really.
I don't always agree with everything Paul says, but as a Hi-Fi enthusiast of 44 years, I have to say I have experienced "screamy and harsh" from CDs, but also in the early days, from vinyl too! ... "Brightness" it's called, and it's very unpleasant and fatiguing!
Add a tube buffer, between your dac & your amplifier, that will take away the harsh sound from digital, I've just done a major upgrade to my Musical fidelity X10-D tube buffer, & it gives my digital a nice warm sound, closer to analogue, here's a link to my video
ruclips.net/video/bYOKfM5O9FI/видео.htmlsi=rjbjnOHAeXc29nlc
It's a bit ironic that those calling themselves purists often like music with extra room reflections, amplifiers with even harmonic tube distortion and vinyl music with lots of noise and wow and flutter. Perhaps our brain perceives realism as something less "signal perfect". To some degree the sense of music being more live is about these imperfections. I find myself enjoying some of this extra added imperfection for certain music while other music won't benefit from it.
I want to hear faithful reproductions of the original recording The digital medium is more capable of doing that. if you like the color and sound that vinyl can give you, fine, Dragging a pointy rock through a plastic groove susceptible to dust dirt and scratches will never be a superior medium It’s like comparing a horse and buggy to a BMW
there is a distinction between medium & message (content). while a medium may be touted as "technically superior" (by some standard), the content may present itself distinctly via alternative medium(s). for the consumer of the content via an integrated system (from source to one's specific cognition in time & place) the choice is personal - even emotional.
“It’s the PS Audio channel, of course I am biased towards our products”. You didn’t go to the “Audio Research channel” for their content.
Who needs phonograph record when there is DSD256? 😉
You're certainly not going to get the snap. crackle and pop!!
I love watching Pauls videos , He is great, But he does not get vinyl has magic and they can spend a fortune to improve digital but they can never match vinyl...........
The whole industry has been spinning its wheels for decades, trying to reproduce the analogue experience people enjoyed 40 years ago and can be had on the vintage market for far less.
Yes, yes and yes.
@@erdemkaya6472glad someone out there in internetland agrees 😇
Have never heard PS Audio's cd transport and DAC, but I'm sure they're wonderful. Beyond that, I've heard good things about Border Patrol DACS; Ayre, Aesthetix, and Luxman (all much more expensive than Border Patrol) all make DACS and disc players and/or DACS that are more analogue-sounding; and obviously there are other digital equipment lines with a reputation for sounding more like analogue than certain others.
To be pedantic, All music is analogue....only the means of storing it differs.
That guy must have had a terrible CD player 😂
The reason is simple and doesn't take a magician to figure this out. Digital falsifies the sound, the original sound of the instruments and analog preserves it. So yes a first class or even an average sounding turntable with a natural sounding recording will sound more like the sounds of the real thing whereas digital no matter how you spend or complicated you will have a sound uniquely artificial which does not mimic the sound timbre of the original instrument. It is a fact of our life now unfortunately.
No true at all. With digital you can make an audibly indistinguishable copy of the original analog. But you cannot do it vice versa. An analog copy will only add noise and distortion - which of course you may like. This is trivially easy to demonstrate.
Hmm - one of the most important components in listening will most likely remain purely analog for many years to come: Your ears.
not if elon has anything to do w/ it.
He does ignore them. But they keep coming to attack his channel. SMH.
Try hearing vinyl LPs with mass strings and compare to digital recording of the same. You will laugh!!
I farted Paul
sales pitch !
Human cannot heard digital sound🗿
So people are interested in your videos yet they complain that you promote your products why not
Digital sucks
Masters is on tapes, vinyl is a lossy copy of that, digital is a lossless copy of the same tape.. Cd and tapes are more the same. + sacd player 150$, a good turntabel 500$+ phono pre, its just not Worth it.
Sounds like the guy has a crappy overpriced CD system ..
with the right cd transport/dac combo, you can certainly have a “good” compact disc compete with a “good” vinyl disc employing a “good” isolated record player/arm/cartridge/stylus/phono preamp.
These days the argument is ridiculous, because it’s difficult to make the comparison in the first place due to all the unaccounted for variables and the two technologies being a good half century apart! The greatest “difference” is the pros and cons of each by default. CD’s are more convenient, easier to preserve, and consume less space, and are more more noise free, and being optically read, the disc is isolated. Vinyl albums have artwork and text size advantages, but can’t compete with the CD’s pros.
someone is selling those infinities for 65,000 $...crazy