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

Qualitatively, CD is undeniably 'better' - however I prefer the 'experience' of vinyl.

 

You'd think the high maintenance of vinyl would be a deterrent but I enjoy cleaning my records making sure the stylus is clean and all that. I really need to invest in a record brush and stylus brush. CDs you pop in and you play. It's a shame good CD players aren't being made anymore, like the ones that could play hidden minus tracks between songs.

 

Bought a CD single myself yesterday from 1990. Sounds great as expected. In fact sounds better than many modern CD's. Could it be because of the stupid loudness thing they do these days?
I did original set out to buy the single on Vinyl but it was 5400 yen while the CD with more tracks was 600 yen. No brainer in this case, I went for the CD. But as GOH mentioned, the experience doesn't seem the same playing the CD than the record. It's very odd but I guess it's like playing a game ROM compared to a real hard copy of a game.

 

So for those interested, Tracks 1 and 4 were from the record while tracks 2 and 3 were from CD. The quality of the CD is shockingly bad IMO. So much distortion it's as if some work experience kid was left in control of the master volume. The record is much more pleasing but doesn't seem to hit the high end as well.

 

Interesting

I just got my first Japanese pressing of something today on Vinyl, I post the whole haul in the vinyl thread later.

However most of my classical music is going to be on CD.

 

You'll find Japanese vinyl to be better sounding that most US vinyl. I've got a few records that are absolutely silent on the fade outs. I shit you not! I'll even go as far as providing a video to prove it

 

There's a couple of reasons for that. The lack of insane levels of limiting during mastering in order to make shit super loud when played back with minimal amplification could be a big part of it. Modern production techniques are generally shit as well. Your average major label level recording these days is generally given the treatment of having everything cut and quantized to metronome perfect timing, every note artificially tuned to machine perfect pitch, most vocals layered at least 3 tracks deep during sections where its just 1 person singing, drums are generally sample replaced or at the very least augmented (not that this wasn't done at all back in the day but generally done a bit differently) , INSANE degrees of compression on EVERYTHING, using engineering skill to make up for a lack of musical performance ability on the part of the "artists" (Fix it in the mix vs doing another take), rushed sessions done with a "Fix it in the mix" mentality due to drastically smaller budgets these days vs the 80s - 90s. All these help lead to these overblown, super bright, yet lifeless and robotic sounding recordings that when matched in volume are shit compared to major work prior to the late 90s - early 00s

There's even more to it and I could go on as engineering is the line of work I was in for a few years up until I needed to make some actual money, but those are some of the big ones.

 

Hurah! I was right about the CD's suffering from over amplification!

 

It's crazy, in the first video, how slow the cd-rom spins
We don't see 1x speed often!

 

I like the way you can make an exact duplicate of CDs since they're digital but I love the experience of digging through crates and discovering long lost vinyl, taking it home and listening. Don't really give a crap about the quality - I used to see people at vinyl fairs/swapmeets scrutinising $1 or $2 records then putting them back because they had scratches. Really?! It's all part of the experience!

Thanks for the vids though, pretty awesome to look back. I remember when my Dad got his first CD player in the 80s his friend was adamant that CDs would disintegrate after 5 years and you'd have to buy them again lol

 

I mean, no matter how well you take care of a record, it will wear down over repeated uses.
Maybe it's because I'm not nostalgic for vinyl, but I never really got it. I do like the album cover being larger and usually more intricate than a CD cover (especially with like rock bands from the 70s and 80s, using skilled artists to make covers, not like today, where Chris Brown just traces over a 20 year old manga).

Also, for convenience sake, being able to skip to a certain track is a lot easier than with vinyl or cassette.

 

Records wearing down Does depend a lot on the equipment. Stylus maintenance is important too.
Supposidly records played on old RCA Hifis were still good to go after 5000 plays on a well maintained unit.

Not like anyone would play something 5000 times.

If you peek in the vinyl thread, you'll see what might be the coolest thing I now own as it's only available regionally.