I know the ancient analogue/vinyl vs. digital/cd topic has been covered endlessly in other forums, but I'm curious about the opinions of people here as to the ongoing benefits of vinyl, and in particular wonder if you can help me account for a specific difference on highs. Last night I did some comparison tests on John Coltrane's Blue Train album, comparing that song, "Blue Train," from the LP that Blue Note reissued in 1990 to the version on "The Last Giant: The John Coltrane Anthology" from Rhino Records. The Rhino CD offers the same take from the original Blue Train album, from the 1957 recording session.
Listening to them both on the M60s, and adjusting for volume as I switched between (since the LP plays at a distinctly lower volume), the differences were extremely apparent. The bass lines were great on both, but the highs, particularly a cymbal-brushing sequence, sounded so different it was like two different recordings. On CD the cymbal brushes leapt out of the right speaker, and were frankly distracting. On vinyl they blended in and seemed to assume their proper place. There were plenty of other subtle differences -- and I enjoyed both formats, with a slight preference for vinyl on this kind of jazz. But the cymbal-brush difference was so pronounced -- do you think the CD mix was just different, or is this part of the sonic difference between the formats?
Birdman
