Kahuna wrote:The Sleeping Giant wrote:People still think CD versions of music are the best copies they can get, when vinyl and high res FLAC files are so much superior.
I just don't get the resurgent love for vinyl. CD was a huge step forward. What is the attraction of vinyl for those on here that use it.
Genuinley interested to know, not trolling for a slanging match.
I don't get it either, vinyl isn't "so much superior" over CD, at least not on specs.
The reason CD got a bad reputation from audiophiles was that early CD players had inferior DACs (12 bit or maybe 14 bit) to what is commonly seen today.
Add to that many early releases on CD were issued from vinyl masters that were unsuited to the CD format (vinyl tails off in the treble range, so masters get boosted there, play a CD from that master and you get the "harsh" sound people complained about).
Quality playback equipment is important of course, but a lot of quality is highly dependent on the original recordings and the mastering process.
A number of producers and artists have hijacked the latter resulting in the
Loudness War and a new harshness.
The thing is though that most of the general public don't care about hi-res audio, it's more about convenience of having thousands of portable tracks.
So it's great that there will be more hi-res available for people who care, but I think it will remain a niche market.