Listening session

[Bizzie]

Actually listened to some CD's tonight its been a long time as I always prefer Vinyl of late but some records i only have on CD.

Had on starsailor silence is easy and Ian Brown unfinished monkey business the musics great, not so sure about the digital sound though always seems that somethings missing to me.

[llantech]

Thank you for opening up a subject dear to my heart.

In my opinion the digital revolution is moving too fast, and is being pushed mainly for commercial reasons, and the quality of sound reproduction has got lost somewhere in all this.

Way back in the 70's when CD's were being launched as the biggest revolution in music storage, I had my reservations. Some how the sound from the CD's and systems just didnt match up to the quality of good tape, let alone vinyl recordings. I was told "you will get used to the different type of distortion ", after 30 years and a lot of early equipment swapping I still cant like it.

Having been brought up in a generation when music was played live with 5 to 10 peolple bands and the variety of instruments played at Dance halls, Pubs and Concerts, and not being too shabby on Flute, Guitar, and drums myself. The sound from CD's just isnt real, it allways sounds manufactured, thin and cold from a CD, even vocals seem to have an underlying thin rasp when compared to live listening or vinyl.

Yes the dealers told me that things would improve as time passed, technology would solve the problems . OO yea.

The result was, I only had limited access to new music, and I sorta relied on my collection of LP's as my main source of entertainment.

Then Salvation , Halaluljah, while in a friends house I saw a valve amp which he didnt take much persuading to show off. We listened to both the Vinyl, and the CD version of Pink Floyds "Darkside of the Moon ", and what a treat.
The Cd version was listenable to . And that was how I became hooked on the Valve amp.

While CD's still dont seem to capture ALL the harmonics of Instruments or Vocals at least they dont make me want to fall asleep while im listening anymore.

BRING BACK VINYL . even groups like the Who and Paul McCartney are on record for wishing its return

[Global]

I wholehearteadly agree with the sentiments!

I would say however that vinyl IS back and one could even make a case for saying it had never been away! It is a growing minority market which seems to have found an acceptable price/market size balance.

Of course, I wish that all my favourites were on vinyl, but I can get most of the new stuff I want in the preferred medium.

Anyone got a copy of Oldfield's 'Songs of Distant Earth' on vinyl????

Mark

[Paul Barker]

I never afforded cd when it came out, but by about 1997 I had enough money to buy a beer mat spinner. Off I went to local friendly hifi shop stating I wanted to buy a cd player.

He firstly did the right thing which was to take advantage of a sale and sold me an Alpha 7.

I got homne and was at first impressed because the sound is unusual at first and you think that means better. But in the end I went back to him wioth said player and said there is something wrong with it it doesn't sound anything like the reviews of it in the comics.

That whas when he said, no mate it's what cd is like, you want vinyl mate.

Sold it, and never looked back.

I listen to cd's on wifes cubic thing in kitchen with small speakers, sounds dull and lifeless to me.

[Shane]

Back in 1983, I had my first experience of CD at a Hi-Fi sow in Crewe. We were demoing Heybrook gear, so the system would probably have been HB3s, EAR amplification the vinyl source was either Linn LP12/Ittok/Koetsu or Heybrook TT2, can't remember which. We managed to borrow a Philips CD player from the Philips guys who were very proud of i, and eager for us to help spread the word.

The only CD we had was "Dire Straits Love Over Gold", which we also had on vinyl. My sense of anticipation before the comparison was only matched by my disappointment afterwards. In comparison to the vinyl, the CD was dull, boring and flat. Nothing I've heard in the intervening 23 years has changed that opinion.

What intrigued me most though was the opinion of the general public, who mostly thought that the CD was better because there was no surface noise (it wasn't exactly a pristine LP we were using), but belied their stated opinions by jigging and bouncing in their seats during the LP playback, but staying completly still for the CD. Some were visibly finding it hard to concentrate on the CD, but because they weren't thinking about this aspect of the performance in their comparison, still voiced a preference for the CD!

[andrew ivimey]

I have a £2000 CD + DAC; bought second hand and have never thought about CD quality since. (I late started with CD as a player was £17 in a junk shop and then found that CDs were expensive)

Over the years I have found that there are good bad and mediocre CDs and that is down to the recording of them / transfer to CD from tape etc etc.

There are really wonderful CDs out there. (and many that are ...hm)

You can get **** vinyl too (from the pressing?).

But on the whole I am still surprised by the dynamics and overall quality of records - vinyl is an amazing medium.

And now I just want better - this is attainable.

CDV is usually a reference and (very) convenient.

SACD and DVD Audio can be mindblowingly something else. (It too can be 'not very good actually') I am very glad it exists .... getting close and sometimes better than good vinyl?

[Rob042]

In general I go with Vinyl is King, but since playing with dacs ,I feel I'm getting a tad closer to what I enjoy in vinyl.
the Merdian mcd started it, but now using 12x tda 1543 chips,this is got closer. Now looking at 36x

[Cyprus Martin]

When CDs first came out I was "lucky" enough to win one of the first CD players from a Hi Fi magazine (can't remember which one now) after rushing out and buying some CDs to play and being thoroughly disappointed I returned it to the manufacturers as faulty, When it came back as "no fault found" I couldn't believe it because all the CD reviews were heaping glowing praise on these ultimate sounding silver spinners. I thought that I must be wrong but slowly it dawned on me that it was a case of "the king's new clothes".
Too many people believe what they are told instead of being independent enough to make their own judgements. How many people have bought a product as a result of a review and never listened first?

[Bizzie]

I was seduced by the "silver side" for a while but no matter what I did there always seemed to be something missing.

After coming across a Thorens TD150 at an auction I went back to vinyl and have had loads of fun looking through boxes at car boots hoping to find that gem and now have more records than CDs (500 at last count) the problem is where do I put them all.

I've found that I rarely listen to CD lately and it has to be CDs first then move to Vinyl, just sounds too bad the other way round even she who must be obayed prefers the sound of Vinyl.

[michael orme]

Originally Posted by llantech

Thank you for opening up a subject dear to my heart.

In my opinion the digital revolution is moving too fast, and is being pushed mainly for commercial reasons, and the quality of sound reproduction has got lost somewhere in all this.

Way back in the 70's when CD's were being launched as the biggest revolution in music storage, I had my reservations. Some how the sound from the CD's and systems just didnt match up to the quality of good tape, let alone vinyl recordings. I was told "you will get used to the different type of distortion ", after 30 years and a lot of early equipment swapping I still cant like it.

Having been brought up in a generation when music was played live with 5 to 10 peolple bands and the variety of instruments played at Dance halls, Pubs and Concerts, and not being too shabby on Flute, Guitar, and drums myself. The sound from CD's just isnt real, it allways sounds manufactured, thin and cold from a CD, even vocals seem to have an underlying thin rasp when compared to live listening or vinyl.

Yes the dealers told me that things would improve as time passed, technology would solve the problems . OO yea.

The result was, I only had limited access to new music, and I sorta relied on my collection of LP's as my main source of entertainment.

Then Salvation , Halaluljah, while in a friends house I saw a valve amp which he didnt take much persuading to show off. We listened to both the Vinyl, and the CD version of Pink Floyds "Darkside of the Moon ", and what a treat.
The Cd version was listenable to . And that was how I became hooked on the Valve amp.

While CD's still dont seem to capture ALL the harmonics of Instruments or Vocals at least they dont make me want to fall asleep while im listening anymore.

BRING BACK VINYL . even groups like the Who and Paul McCartney are on record for wishing its return

Trouble is, many new vinyl records come from digital studio recordings, they may be sampled at a higher rate than that of cd, or they might not!
Someone I know has a small recording studio, he says he records at "44100" for everything, and mixes at this sample rate too. He claims "most people don't notice the difference".
Michael Orme. Rhyl