Why Vinyl Is Better Than Cds

You ll also hear vinyl enthusiasts discussing the warm sound they get from their record players.

Why vinyl is better than cds.

While coloured vinyl and picture discs are an easy way to ensure degradation to a record s playback there are practices made to better the way an lp sounds. Crackles and pops records that skip and the whine of a needle against the lp all problems that the cd advertised itself on solving decades ago. Cds can handle over 90 db. Take a look at the graph below.

The simplest is to make a record that plays faster. But this article isn t focused on why cds are better than vinyl. Cds are now cheaper than lps. Original sound is analog by definition.

The answer lies in the difference between analog and digital recordings. It wasn t long before vinyl recordings of the same content often had better sound quality at normal listening volumes simply because they had higher dynamic range. For comparison listening to vinyl as opposed to digital is like viewing the mona lisa with your own eyes rather than looking at a picture of it on a smartphone. A vinyl record is an analog recording and cds and dvds are digital recordings.

Vinyl is in a resurgence of course with records outselling cds for the first time in almost three decades. Maybe it was coincidence but vinyl began its resurgence at around the same time as recordings started this trend. On a theoretical level there s just no reason it should be the case that vinyl sounds better. The vinyl format can generate other issues.

Cds give you more bang for the buck. In practical terms this means that cds have more than 10. It didn t used to be this way which is part of what made collecting used vinyl in the 90s and early aughts such a gas. The difference between the loudest and softest sounds an lp can play is about 70 decibels db.

There are built in problems with using vinyl as a data encoding mechanisms that have no cd equivalent. Cds on the other hand have been on the decline. Digital got its act together but not until the death of the cd.