Vinyl Music Vs Digital

Vinyl and digital both have good points and bad points.

Vinyl music vs digital. Vinyl is one of the best ways to listen to music. But here s the reason why the entire debate is stupid. Of course it looks beautiful but does it sound better and can we really tell the difference. Records aren t exactly known for their portability for example.

Even the standard redbook cd 44khz 16 bit resolution has about a 26db advantage to vinyl with respect to dynamic range and at least a 40 50 db advantage in stereo separation as well as unmeasurable wow and flutter. So no vinyl isn t better than digital music but it offers several advantages because of the fact that loudness war mixing isn t feasible on the medium. Also if we hear the same music in digital format and also in vinyl format the vinyl format is bit different from digital format and we must say the digital format is best. It s difficult to measure the dynamics of vinyl accurately but there are notable examples of major releases with better dynamics on vinyl if you dig around the web.

With the vinyl master there is a physical limit to what can be fed to the cutting head of the lathe and so heavily clipped masters are not welcome and can only be accommodated if at all by serious. October 22 james ronald from my point of view digital is the best then vinyl. It s one of the great music snob arguments the superior aesthetic and sound quality of vinyl over the digital. And it s true some records are which is horribly ironic given digital music is capable of much greater dynamic range 96db for cd vs 55 65db for vinyl.

Sonically vinyl has both strengths and weaknesses compared to digital files just as movie buffs have argued over the pros and cons of 35mm film against 4k digital. When the format failed as a mainstream format i decided i wasn t going to adopt higher resolution formats until it fully matured with a broad catalog. By every measure digital audio is superior to analog. For digital to truly eclipse vinyl thousands of records from the 1990s onward would need a remaster.

It s like deciding which of two different cars is best by comparing their spark plug wires. However that s not to say there aren t advantages to digital music. I was an early adopter of sacd. I still buy vinyl.

To many the superior sound quality and physical collection are enough to justify the investment. I don t hate digital. A digital master for cd has to have a 16 bit word length and it can be as loud and as limited as the client s taste or insecurity dictates. It s one that we fall for ourselves sometimes that s the powerful spell of vinyl the format that comes from the days when music was king and has that warm glow of nostalgia to it.

To break down what vinyl can.