Originally Posted by
Eric the Half a Bee
I haven't reverted back to vinyl as such, but I did buy myself a tidy deck for my 40th. A cheap record player just sounds shit.
Better? Different is probably more accurate. I like comparing original pressings with cds. One of my favourites is a Saint Saens organ symphony which I have on both. The record, made of quite a heavy and thick vinyl, is stunning, despite the odd pop and crackle. Some Dave Brubeck sounds better on vinyl. I've bought a few 45s from the 60s and 70s and they are better on vinyl. The digital remasters tend to lack depth and clarity. Much of that is down to the remastering, not the medium, though. Older recordings were intended for vinyl. Modern studio recordings aren't.
I have fought shy of buying any new vinyl pressings of old material. I'd firstly want to know if the pressing was made with the original recording, not some remastered attempt. I wonder how new material sounds on vinyl? Digital sound is only a sample of analog - there's no way of perfectly replicating analog on a digital format, though most will never tell the difference. I rarely can. If a digital recording has lost a fraction of the sound (mainly high pitched harmonics that we can't hear but are there), vinyl will just play back the analog pressing of a digital recording. That doesn't appeal to me.
There's also stuff released on vinyl that will never see a CD. I love my copy of the Portsmouth Sinfonia on vinyl (those who know of them will understand!). I recently found Agadoo on 12" in my local market for 25p. Bargain!
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