Some interesting old CD Videos make the case for the CD in 2015

While I love Vinyl, I think some genre's of music sound better on CD. Classical for example I'd rather listen to on CD. The CD's longer run tum give these long pieces more room to breathe and Bass BASS, to get Bass to come through on Vinyl you needed wider grooves and thus shorter run time per side, and more times you need to get off your ass to flip sides.

Of course you have audiophiles that swear the CD is the spawn of Satan and ONLY listen to Vinyl no matter what the Genre. The Type of collector I can't stand.

I think Jazz, and Classic Rock sound best on Vinyl, Classical sounds best on CD. NOTHING on MP3. Not that I hate MP3s, It's how I get my video game music. BUT I can tell a clear difference between Vinyl/CD and MP3. Not much of one between Vinyl and CD. So after some digging to make my case to the Vinyl Snobs that hate CDs, I found some old promotional Videos for the CD on You Tube. they're VERY interesting especially what the woman at the end of the first video says.







I have some recent articles on CD VS Vinyl where people in the know make a good case for CDs not being a lost cause YET.

But let us discuss, does anybody else think the CD is better for some genres, while Vinyl is better for others and then the genres where it doesn't matter?

What about forgotton formats like Reel to Reel, the Mini Disc and DCC Tapes?

 

I saw that tomorrow's world video when it was first broadcasted on the BBC. I would watch Tomorrow's World every week without fail. They were the first show in the world to broadcast a stereo TV signal and do you know why they did it? To show the surround effect used in Bomb The Bass's Mega Blast music on Xenon II.

 

The only song I would prefer to listen too on vinyl

 

I'm sorry, but I fail to see how vinyl could come anywhere close to the quality of a CD.

Xenon II? As in the Amiga game? That's awesome.

 

Yep, the Amiga game.

Also the CD compared to vinyl is a touchy subject. I love both but have to say vinyl has the slight edge in terms of comfort but CD's have the edge in lack of background noise. Saying that I do like the crackles of some records.

 

Saying that to Vinyl enthusiasts will get you burnt at the stake. There's a David Bowie Box Set from the 80s that marketed itself as having CD Quality sound. SO Obviously at some point people weren't blinded by nostalgia goggles. Now you have Snobs that complain about reissues having Digital sources, like it's a bad thing.

I don't think CD is Better than Vinyl or vice versa. I just think Vinyl is fun to collect, The fact I have these shiny pieces of Wax that are older than I am fascinates me. Though I do prefer Classic Rock and Jazz on Vinyl for the simple fact this music was mastered for Vinyl.

it really is some people are militant about it. The Sound system I'm using now is in need of an upgrade (as in replacement) and doesn't have a very good CD player. I'm looking at CD Players from the late 80s, Early 90s I actually found the EXACT model we used to have on Ebay last night.

I'm heavily considering getting a DCC deck, there aren't many DCC's but it seems like something worth having. Then all I need is a good speaker system. No idea what yet though.

 

I have so much vinyl because my dad never sold his collection, the problem with vinyl is after much use the record tends to be crackly, plus some vinyl were print with imperfections and because of that they have the crackle from the get go. Honestly I like digital more as things sound so much clearer. For example ELO sounds like a symphony when played via digital, whilst the various instruments tend to merge together when played via vinyl. Honestly I think the vinyl obsession is a nostalgic thing for most people. A great record if you can ever pick it up is "in the court of the crimson king".

 

I have One record that sounds super scratchy it's from 1959. Records are high Maintenance which I guess is part of the charm. I used to have 100s of CDs But got rid of them thinking OH MP3s man MP3s........but they were low bitrate and meh.So I went back to vinyl. There was one new album by a band that sounds like they came from the 60s. BOTH copies of the album I got skipped and had defects. So that's another knock on vinyl.

A good well taken care of record can sound as good as a CD though.

I'm going to rebuild the CD collection but only with certain things.

The first 7 seconds of this video is the absolute most perfect example of douchebaggery amongst Vinyl Collectors.



For the most part the VC has some pretty cool chill people. But when I was just starting out SO MANY DOUCHEBAGS. That's a knock on vinyl that has nothing to do with equipment or sound quality just the large number of douchebags you have to deal with before you find the cool people.

 

To be honest, I am unconvinced that vinyl will ever be better than proper digital solutions. To make matters worse, most vinyl these days are recorded from digital masters, which kind of defeats the purpose. But I will agree that vinyl gives more of an "experience" than digital. Ie. You get to see cool artwork, flip through covers, books, or extras, etc. Much like what you get with Laser Discs.

 

it's weird the things that catch on and don't. Cassettes don't exactly sound "Good" but they were all the rage, maybe thanks to the walk man. But DCC's which I just learned about yesterday did not catch on despite high sound quality and features not even CDs had at the time. I don't really get why DVD Audio and more recently Blu Ray audio hasn't caught on. The Clearness of a CD, and the range and warmth of Vinyl. NOBODY buys that shit though. DVDA fell on it's face and Blu Ray Audio is just sort of there.

For Digital Music MP3 is the standard but it's very limited and it's bit rates are inferior to that of OGG, FLAC and traditional WAV files. Also APE files.

How the hell did 8 Tracks catch on? Those things sucked but people had them and listened to them and loved them. WHY?

There are some interesting videos on the Techmoan You Tube channel with old audio formats that are pretty interesting.

 

You watch Technoman too? Good channel that is. Many a few too many dash cam reviews though

I'm gonna put together a little CD vs Vinyl flac file to see if anyone can tell the difference. 3 tracks from records and 3 from CD. Can you guess which track is from which source? I'm willing to bet most people won't be able to I'll get the file ready tonight.

 

Yeah I only watch his reviews of old tech. Which isn't much, I ignore the dash cam reviews.

 

OK, I've put together 4 tracks (two of the same song) two are from a CD while the other two are from a record. They do sound different but which do you like most?
Can you tell which are from the record and which are from the CD?

I'll post the answer this coming Saturday.



Track 1 - Pet Shop Boys - Vocal
Track 2 - Pet Shop Boys - Vocal
Track 3 - Pet Shop Boys - Thursday
Track 4 - Pet Shop Boys - Thursday

Download - www.segagagadomain.com/cd-or-record.rar

The files are 24bit FLAC at the highest quality.

The CD audio track are direct 100% untouched rips from the CD. The record tracks were recorded 3072kbps 16bit then had the volume maximized to mach the CD or get as close enough to the CD.

 

It's hard to tell with the tinny speakers on the computer I'm using.

I'm going to guess based on the file sizes.

Track 1- Record
Track 2- CD
Track 3- CD
Track 4- Record

Of the four the one I think sounds best is track 1

I wish this computer had better speakers so I could better analyze though and I don't have anything else around that can Play FLAC Files.

 

Hehe, I could have fiddled the track sizes it would be too easy otherwise. Interesting that you think track 1 sounds the best though. How about trying with headphones if you have a pair.

 

This is true I'll have to look to see if there are any head phones around.

 

Here are my thoughts. Although I didn't use a pair of high quality IEM's (i'm at work), I suspect that:

Track 1 - Vinyl
Track 2 - CD
Track 3 - CD
Track 4 - Vinyl

However, unlike GoH, the reason I picked this order is because track 2 and track 3 seem to be casualties of the "loudness" war. That is, the war that studios are fighting where by increasing the loudness of a song (regardless of distortion) it is thought to the average consumer, that the quality is better. Which is exactly the opposite of how music quality works, despite what the average joe might think.

By that token, I suspect track 1 and 4 to be Vinyl because they don't seem to suffer from this problem. Mostly because, Vinyl can't be over amplified too much, otherwise you'll cause the needle to physically jump out of the track.

This is just my layman's guess. I am no audio expert, nor do I have any good equipment at work. (^_^);

 

It's been said the Vinyl version of Metallica's Death Magnetic is SLIGHTLY better than the CD Version for that very reason, Loudness war. But since they are from the same masters, the Vinyl edition is still not as good as the Guitar Hero 3 mix.

 

I gave them a listen on my bass heavy Sony MDR-XB500 headphones. From I could tell, track 1 and 3 sound more subdued/muffled while track 2 and 4 sound slightly brighter/clear to me. I take that clear sound is probably a characteristic of CD audio.

Therefore:
Track 1: Record
Track 2: CD
Track 3: Record
Track 4: CD

 

Thanks for your participation and an interesting point. I kind of agree too.