Ok, that was slightly misleading. Let me clarify.... heavy metal and hard rock records are better on vinyl. I pulled 7 albums from my collection and put them under a microscope along with their CD audio counterparts. The video I put together is much more extensive and exposes some CD's as not conforming to the CD Audio spec to gain additional loudness at the expense of sound quality so that was a surprise. I tested several different kinds of digital streaming and HD downloads and confirmed most of it all is garbage when measured. Different genres of music are treated differently, though. Jazz and Classical are rarely handled in such a careless way and my recent testing of Miles Davis' Kind of Blue on UHQR 45rpm vinyl measures extremely well but still lower than the MoFi CD version.
Below are a couple screen caps from the video followed up by the video link if you want to see all the records and all the test results.
The waveform shows Greta Van Fleet: Starcatcher on audio CD is about as crushed as possible. It's almost the new standard in awful on CD. The vinyl on the other hand is warm, pleasing and full of life.
View attachment 63937
The dynamic range also shows extreme disparity between formats.
View attachment 63938
With Judas Priest's Firepower LP, you can see it's an aggressive recording because it's an all out metal assault. However, it's mastered for vinyl in such a way that it keeps its energy level and sounds three dimensional. The audio CD on the other hand is a smashburger.
View attachment 63939
The dynamic range of the CD isn't as tragic as Starcatcher but still has its horns in the grave. The vinyl on the other hand can really shine on a great sound system.
View attachment 63941
The loudness war has certainly done damage to the state of music, forcing everyone to push further and harder. In turn, it changes the way people listen to music. I know in my car it's impossible to listen to a vinyl rip without a complete recalibration of the whole system.
I also discovered that loudness is so important to the record company's that they strip the frequency response of the recording to boost the signal.
View attachment 63942
If you find any of this interesting, check out my video below for the rest. There's a lot to cover. Oh yeah, I forgot... I give away 18 free digital download codes in the video for some random records. They will likely sound great on a portable device or in your car.