Paul H wrote:

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I can see this is gonna start costing me money, isn't it?

Hole in one son

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I obviously don't know a lot about the technical processes involved with C.D. or vinyl, but I can't help but think that the sound of a vinyl record is more true-to-life than that of the compact disc. I try to find Split Enz on vinyl whenever I can, because to me, c.d.s sound slightly to somewhat artificial despite the clarity of the sound. Newer compact discs do sound better than previous generations of them, though.

The trouble at this late stage is finding them with few scratches and pops, which must be compensated for by cranking up the volume!

I agree with that statement.

Apart from cranking up the volume ( ) you can find nice, clean copies for sale on ebay. I've just recently bought some vinyl on ebay for fairly steep prices, which I may or may not regret.

You can get it nice if you pay for it.

But there are also some very reasonably priced items on at the moment, so its well worth a look.

You may want to check out Amazon too. Not sure what that's like for vinyl, but when I'm after something, I look everywhere.

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Originally posted by Bogue:
I try to find Split Enz on vinyl whenever I can, because to me, c.d.s sound slightly to somewhat artificial despite the clarity of the sound.[/b]

In my opinion, that's not a fault of the CD medium but the equipment used in the mastering process, the condition of the tapes and the choices made by the mastering engineers and/or record company. CDs don't have to sound artificial, especially with today's very nice sounding analogue-to-digital converters, but the extreme EQ and limiting applied to music these days robs CDs of their potential.

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Originally posted by Jaffaman:
CDs don't have to sound artificial, especially with today's very nice sounding analogue-to-digital converters, but the extreme EQ and limiting applied to music these days robs CDs of their potential.

Which is why a bunch of us - me included - are turning back to vinyl. Seems almost a shame really.

I agree with Jaffaman. Compact disc can sound fantastic if the mastering engineer does their job properly. Some mastering engineers such as Bill Inglot manages to keep the warmth of analogue sound as we all know and love on vinyl yet uses the advantage that a CD dynamic range offers. He also doesn't use "brickwall" (over-compression or LOUD mastering) which means the CD master remains true to the original analogue master.

I have also heard some bad vinyl pressings because of careless mastering. Excessive hiss, dull sound, channel drop-outs etc. Once again if extra care was gone into preparing the master (checking for such faults as drop-outs) and cutting the 'mother' (the plate that is used for stamping onto vinyl), these problems shouldn't really exist.

So in my opinion the argument between vinyl and CDs is not one for the medium but of mastering. I love looking at gatefold sleeves, fancy record labels, the matrix numbers and hidden messages in the dead wax of the run out groove, coloured vinyls, inner sleeves etc... but that's mainly because I like to romanticize about nostalgia. On a practical and strictly technical level, compact discs are superior if the mastering engineers took some care into the analogue-to-digital conversion.

I don't like mp3s though!

Carried Away on vinyl - amazing experience for me!

Especially as my record player plays slightly too fast - you wanna see me boogie round the living room when THAT's on, I can tell you!
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You're so damn pretty, and don't you know it