Vinyl. What took me so long?

[mtrycrafts]

...I honestly thought analog won a long time ago.

Yes, it never went away. Just look at speakers, it is analog indeed.

 

[chadnliz]

Analog has not won in the open market, either. Analog is a now a fringe market. If most people thought it was better, CDs would never have taken over in the first place. So analog lost a long time ago except among a small following.

Ironically, before CDs came along, digital master recordings were what audiophiles loved more than any other type except direct-to-disc recordings. It was only after people were able to eliminate the wow and flutter and other distortions of their home playback equipment (i.e., record players, etc.) that anyone had a problem with digital.

The only reason Vinyl is "fringe" has nothing to do with sound it has to do with portability, you cant play a record in a car, while jogging, and it is a large disc that is harder to make space for. As far as eliminating wow and flutter being the only reason folks turned on CD I fail to see what your point is, Vinyl sounds better no matter how we came to that conclusion. While we have seen a number of formats come and go, DAT,Cassette, 8 Track and a couple others Vinyl is still king for best sound but again it isnt portable and it takes more effort and in our "I want it right now!" world that doesnt fly with enough people to make it appealing to the majority.

 

[3db]

I'm a little surprised to see that the analog v. digital debate is still going on. I honestly thought analog won a long time ago. I guess not here on AH.

Analog is growing in popularity again. All the latest releases that can be had on CD can be had on vinyl. I don't know where this trend is going and how bigs its gonna get. But if they keep cranking out overly loud and poorly mastered CDs, then vinyl will become even more popular. Maybe the record execs planned it this way because its very difficult to get a totally accurtate recording from a vvinyl source.

 

[3db]

Ironically, before CDs came along, digital master recordings were what audiophiles loved more than any other type except direct-to-disc recordings. It was only after people were able to eliminate the wow and flutter and other distortions of their home playback equipment (i.e., record players, etc.) that anyone had a problem with digital.

Yes but today's mastering is a far cry from the mastering they did back then. Today its all about loudness, not fidelity. Wow and flutter is inaudable at the entry level tables. I'm not talking about the mass maket junk like Denon but stuff from Rega, Music Hall, Project. What distortion are you refering too?