Why Vinyl Records Sound Better

Is the sound on vinyl records better than on cds or dvds.

Why vinyl records sound better.

Vinyl for the most part avoided the loudness war with the rise of digital music cds included it s possible to make a track sound louder than it naturally should. By clint holley well made music it has become clear in the past five years that consumers love vinyl records. Vinyl can still push music to the limits of its dynamic range 55 70db but it often shies away from doing so in order to maintain sound quality. The artwork the lyrics and personal interaction are all reasons that this once dead format has catapulted back into the mainstream consciousness but when asked most people would respond that the biggest reason they love vinyl is the sound.

Why vinyl sounds better than cd or not according to rolling stone magazine sales of vinyl albums continue to grow setting a new record in 2010. There s very little compression so the loudest parts of those sounds often. Before weighing vinyl s ahem good and bad sides it helps to know how records are made. The problem here is that it had a tremendous result on the audio quality.

Music sounds better played on a good turntable than it does from files or cds. A vinyl record is an analog recording and cds and dvds are digital recordings. Take a look at the graph below. Comparison of a raw analog audio signal to the cd audio and dvd audio output.

However that s not to say there aren t advantages to digital music. Ask them why and they all say the sound comes first and i agree. Records aren t exactly known for their portability for example. Best turntables under 300.

The answer lies in the difference between analog and digital recordings. To many the superior sound quality and physical collection are enough to justify the investment. Does vinyl reproduce sound better or is it just. There s another far superior reason why vinyl is better than lossy digital formats.

Vinyl is back no doubt about it. Sales of vinyl records have been soaring although they still represent only a tiny fraction of the music industry s revenues. That s why snare drums cymbal splashes and other loud instruments have so much more punch in vinyl recordings.