In reply to:
My response was more or less to address some comments I thought were inaccurate (wow and flutter, degradation, etc...)
Whoops... those things
are issues with vinyl (along with groove swish and warping). The same way that cassette is prone to stretching and to tape tension. Those are straight facts about the medium. Wow and flutter were also issues with the first generation of CD players, but even moderately priced players are at or below measurable levels these days.
And vinyl is sacrificial, every time you play it, the stylus does damage to the media. It's also relatively soft, if you stack vinyl, the grooves compress, if you stand it up, it gets wavy.
Now, I recently bought a new turntable, mostly to transfer some absolutely irreplaceable vinyl (local 80s punk with pressings of <300 copies) and it was a real throwback to drop a needle for the first time in 10 years, and the very "round" sound brought me back to a time when I couldn't wait to listen to a new album I'd purchased (rather than it sitting on a pile until I have time to listen to it)... it didn't take long to remind me of the reasons I was so enthralled with the first CD I heard though... pops and clicks, even on albums that I was transfering for people that kept their vinyl in a museum-like state... sizzling highs and holes in the lows.
Is CD perfect? Of course not, but the issues I have with compact disc have more to do with the engineering on them than the medium. Since it's so easy for any kid with a
trucker hat or
Peppermint Patty hair or
spiked dickbag to get a free copy of ProTools and hang out a shingle as an audio engineer, whipping out CDs for all his Battle of the Bands buddies on mom's Dell Dimension... quality suffers.
Bren R.
