Part 3: Analog vs digital - can vinyl ever sound better than digital?

Comments · 2K

• CU

  @cutty-sark · 5 days ago

  The correct answer is no. Vinyl sounds different than CDs. Every measurable sound parameter is better with CDs.  There are differences in mastering and recording techniques.  All things being equal, 4 is greater than 2.  Because someone says he prefers the sound of vinyl over CD doesn’t make it better. Only different.

• BE

  @bernardkermanadventures5961 · 8 days ago

  One thing that vinyl teaches is to listen critically. There are so many factors about how your turntable and cartridge and pre-amp are set up that can impart huge differences in the sound. You learn to hear when things aren't quite right. And its kind of satisfying to restore optimal performance with a tweak here or there. Its kind of like the difference between driving the car and being the passenger. Some people just want to get there and others enjoy the process of getting there.

  1

• CZ

  @CZGagi · 13 days ago

  Well I think that even a person with strictly practical worldview &quot;could&quot; admit that for a listener who loves the music from pre digital era, a good analog setup is a must. <br>I go with simple rule: analog production on analog, digital production on digital. The majority of vinyl &quot;reissues&quot; should be considered digital production, sadly.

• BR

  @Breakerbox19 · 2 weeks ago

  Another moron who has no idea what he’s talking about. The fact is that good digital especially a well recorded SACD is going to blow away. Any vinyl play back on a high-quality SACD player. There’s no question about that even on a very high-end turntable like the one I have you still have to deal with surface noise, off centered holes on records, warps, and having to flip records over the whole thing is nothing but a pain in the ass and quite frankly, but today’s technology it’s fine as a little hobby something to reminisce over but otherwise it’s just garbage.

  3

• TO

  @tomppytlittlell1372 · 1 month ago

  I still enjoy my 1984 Rega Planar 3 tt, partnered with a Denon DL110 cartridge through iFI Zen preamp &amp; originally partnered with an A&amp;R Cambridge A40 amp &amp; Heybrook LS. When those Heybrooks disintegrated they were replaced with s/h Quad 21L&apos;s. A couple of years ago I replaced the A&amp;R A40 amp with an Audiolab 6000A Play streaming amp &amp; CDT transport to enjoy Streams &amp; CD&apos;s for the very first time. Buying cheap s/h CD&apos;s as I please. Some great music. So now I enjoy LP&apos;s, CD&apos;s &amp; Streams as I choose. Which is &apos;better&apos; I can&apos;t say as all sources depend on so many production &amp; qualty factors. What I can say is I have many 50+ years old LP&apos;s that still blow me away while many of the CD&apos;s/Streams are somehow just less involving for me.

• DO

  @dougmacgregor5053 · 1 month ago

  this video partially explains why after enjoying my linn sondek, itok arm, koetsu, denon and other cartridges i had to finally admit my bryston bcd3 i bought in 2017 absolutely walked on my turntable. live and learn...

  1

• NI

  @niclasekwall · 2 months ago

  I see analog and digital as different languages, language as a way of communicating and basic descriptive function. These descriptions can be stored as memory but also be expressed. Humans have developed most languages and its coding/decoding in the analog domain, but their are some exceptions like Morse code. Computers is more of the other way around, where the common is binary and human language as exception, like DNS servers. The problem is found and lost in translation. Both are beautiful, both can be loved.

  1

• CU

  @curtisroberts503 · 2 months ago

  I’ve been a digital‑only listener for decades after abandoning my vinyl collection back in the ’80s. But the more I learn — and the more I actually listen — the more I’m becoming a believer in vinyl again.<br><br>What really opened my eyes is how vinyl can’t be brick‑walled or crushed the way so many modern digital masters are. A huge amount of streaming and CD releases today are mastered quickly and with almost no attention to dynamic range, musical space, or the actual listening experience. Digital music is often “market‑optimized” — meaning it’s crushed, brick‑walled, and made artificially loud so it stands out on phones, in cars, or in noisy kitchens. This produces a &apos;flat sound&apos;. If you care about how the music actually sounds, that alone is a deal‑breaker.<br><br>Vinyl doesn’t allow that. The format physically cannot be brick‑walled, so engineers are forced to preserve the dynamics, the breathing room, and the musical energy that digital often throws away. That’s why vinyl feels more alive — you’re hearing the music breathe instead of being flattened for convenience.<br><br>And honestly, the physical presence of vinyl matters too. The stylus generates a continuous analog electrical signal that moves the speakers in a more natural, physical way. You literally feel the vibration in the room — the weight of the sound, the way it fills space. It’s a richer, more immersive experience that digital simply can’t provide.<br><br>Digital today is mastered for loudness, not listening — brick‑walled, compressed, and flattened for cheap speakers and background noise targeted to be listened to on car radios, kitchen radios, cell phones and iPads. Vinyl is the only format that consistently protects the music from being “optimized” for marketing instead of the listening experience, sound, the way it fills space… it’s a richer experience that Digital simply cannot provide. Vinyl is the only format that consistently protects the music from being “optimized” for marketing instead of the listening experience.<br><br>Finally, I’m finding that the original pressing of a vinyl LP often outperforms many of the new, high‑priced reissues. A lot of the same market‑driven, cost‑saving decisions that affect digital streaming also affect modern vinyl production. Many new reissues are cut from the same compressed, brick‑walled digital masters used for streaming — so they inherit the same lack of dynamics and musical life.<br><br>Original pressings, on the other hand, usually preserve the natural dynamics, tonal balance, and energy of the era. They often deliver a more authentic feel and a richer overall listening experience that modern pressings don’t always capture.<br><br>And the more revealing your audio system is, the more obvious this becomes. A highly resolving setup doesn’t just show you the strengths of a great original pressing — it also exposes the shortcuts, compression, and imperfections baked into many modern reissues. The better your system gets, the more clearly you hear the difference.<br><br>Even when you have a digital recording that does sounds good it’s still:<br>peak‑limited<br>normalized<br>filtered<br>reconstructed<br><br>Vinyl is mastered for:<br>movement<br>impact<br>groove modulation<br>physicality<br><br>That’s why vinyl bass feels like it hits you in the chest. Digital is unable to replicate this feeling.

  4

• RO

  @rogersaudiocorner · 2 months ago

  Digital is the most precise, reliable, repeatable and technically superior format, but...<br><br>...vinyl done right can sound amazing, and be actually better as an experience! 😉<br><br>I identified myself with the part of being amazed by how great such a an ancient mechanical format can sound sometimes. 🙂<br><br>But there&apos;s a bit of an uncomfortable truth with vinyl, in the sense that it needs a bigger investment to be done right!<br><br>You don&apos;t need to spend thousands on a turntable, bit while you can easily get great sound quality from an 100€ streamer (maybe not reference quality, but still good), 100€ doesn&apos;t buy an cartrige/stylus that goes anywhere near to correctly extracting the information that&apos;s recorded in the vinyl grooves.<br><br>If you spend around 160€ on something like the Audio-Technica VM-95 ML (micro linear), things start to change dramatically.<br><br>When properly setup and aligned, they don&apos;t exhibit the things I always hated on vinyl, such as distortion with sibilants, or inner groove distortion, and that&apos;s something that anyone can hear (but can&apos;t &quot;unhear&quot;). 🙂<br><br>The other important aspect with vinyl is the quality and adjustment capabilities (or lack of) in the phono preamp.<br><br>Some things that are not really a concern with digital or line-level playback devices is the capacitance of the cartdrige, the cable until the phono preamp, and the preamp itself.<br><br><br>This is not pseudo-science (like audio cables in other components), and every cartdrige manufacturer says in their specs what&apos;s the ideal capacitance load for the cartdrige to have the correct frequency response, without high-frequency roll-off within the audible range, or without creating peaks in the audible range that makes all sorts of bad things to sound (like sounding way too bright/harsh, increasing the level of noise and pops on records, etc).<br><br><br>I am <i>NOT</i> implying that you need to spend a small fortune on a turntable setup (you don&apos;t), but you do need to understand the basics so you can match those components up to phono preamp, which you don&apos;t with CD players or streamers.<br><br>You can get amazing vinyl playback with entry-level Pro-Ject or Rega turntables (as an example), if you replace most of the included cartdriges that are pre-installed.<br><br>Those are usually entry-level elliptical stylus (at best), meant to keep the price of the turntable more affordable/appealing, but the proper turntable basics are usually there. &nbsp;😉<br><br>Just keep in mind that you&apos;ll want to be able to adjust antiskating and tracking weight while upgrading your cartdrige or stylus. 🙂<br><br><br>I also kept myself away from vinyl for decades (although never selling my turntable or records), and everytime I tried to listen to them again, I ended up disappointed, and storing all of it for several years (once again).<br><br>Althought I did buy better turntables, the big limiting factor with my old one was actually using cartdriges like the Ortofon OM5E, which isn&apos;t the worst thing you can buy, but it will hardly satisfy anyone who is used to good digital playback. <br><br>I bought the Ortofon 2M Blue (which is an insane improvement), although I also bought the VM95ML from AudioTechnica, which is a lot better at avoiding distortion, and costs about the same. 😉<br><br><br>Although I also upgraded my turntables, those cartridges were what really made the biggest difference, and made me spend a lot of money on vinyl records again. 😁<br><br><br>What we must keep in mind is that vinyl is a demanding format, and you&apos;ll only appreciate it if you also appreciate the whole process (including proper cartdrige alignment, making sure records are pristine without any small dust particles, etc).<br><br>If you don&apos;t want (or can&apos;t) put the time and effort on it, you&apos;re <i>much</i> better of with digital formats.<br><br>I still love and use lot of good digital, although vinyl can definetly be an whole different (an amazing) experience on its own merits!<br><br><br>What we must keep in mind with vinyl is that it is a high precision <i>mechanical</i> format, meaning that it&apos;s just impossible to skip some of the physics involved.<br><br>Virtually all cartdrige manufacturers follow the same hierarchy of stylus tips, from the entry-level conical/spherical to the micro line designs.<br><br>They get more expensive because they typically have more diamond on them (an elliptical bonded vs a nude elliptical is a clear example), and the shape of that microscopically small tip makes all the difference.<br><br>It&apos;s amazing how it is even possible to do those different shapes on such a small piece of diamond. 👀<br><br>But they <i>do</i> make an <i>huge</i> difference on properly tracking those microscopic grooves, in an order of magnitude that simply doesn&apos;t exist in digital (different DACs, for instance).<br><br><br>You don&apos;t need those very expensive &quot;audiophile&quot; pressings to achieve amazing sound quality from vinyl, but you do need to have a stylus that tracks as closely as what the cutting head did when the lacquer was done in the first place.<br><br>There&apos;s no way around physics with vinyl, which also includes the electrical part of it (these are extremely low level signals that need to be amplified and corrected with RIAA), and that&apos;s the reason why it can sound great or terrible with the exact same record!<br><br><br>Some people are happy with playing vinyl with compromised cartdriges and setups, choosing to accept that&apos;s &quot;how vinyl sounds&quot;, including hearing lots of pops and clicks.<br><br>While I do respect that perspective (everyone should be able to do what makes them happy 🙂), that was never the experience and musical information that was molded on those grooves when it left the pressing plant. 🙂<br><br><br>CDs exploded in popularity back in the day for several reasons, but one of them was that it removed all these variables from the table, and don&apos;t need to be handled with extreme care like vinyl records need (if you want them to sound great for decades). <br><br><br>Digital is my daily format, that I can enjoy anywhere.<br><br>Listening to vinyl is a bit more like that special meal or wine, that you are supposed to appreciate at the right moment.<br><br>Digital and vinyl are not competing formats.<br><br>They&apos;re only different flavors of consumer audio playback. 🙂

  3

• TH

  @ThinkingBetter · 3 months ago

  This discussion would be more relevant in the 1980s where digital music was limited to the Red Book CD standard. Nowadays digital audio can far more precisely transfer audio including all the analog details that otherwise get corrupted by noise and distortion. Digital video went through similar arguments in the 1990s.

• JO

  @johnr6168 · 3 months ago (edited)

  I&apos;ve had the experience of a test where the pre-amped feed from a record deck was recorded digitally both in 24 bit and 16 bit formats. The digital recordings were then played back more or less in sync with the vinyl being played again. A few listeners experienced the monitoring being switched between the direct vinyl playback and the digital playback. We weren&apos;t told which we were listening to. No one could hear any difference, even with the 16bit/44.1kHz digital format. This was with a high end amp and speaker setup and a very dry room acoustic. So, the argument that digital ruins the audio just doesn&apos;t wash. Several different types of music were used. The records were almost all AAA format so our digital equipment was the first time the audio had moved from analogue. This avoided any debate about the audio &apos;being already damaged by a digital process&apos; before the records were made.

  1

• NI

  @nickarter · 4 months ago

  A turntable is a modern musical box…..