Quote Originally Posted by 3db View Post
IHO, I think the format war boils down to the recording engineer and not the format its recorded on.
That's really a shame that it's that way. What I don't understand is if CD's and vinyl come from the same master source, why don't they sound the same?

Where the record excelled, the very best CD I have didn't come close. For instance, for the first time since owning a CD player, cymbals sounded real, but this was from the vinyl. Up to this point I had thought that my speakers and/or equipment was not up to the task, but apparently vinyl proved that wrong. It seems that CD players smear the signal. I assume that a better CD player would overcome this.

The record players that most people owned prior to CD's paled in comparison to a good turntable and cartridge. Perhaps the average CD player is comparable to the average record player of the past, which explains why, in comparison, vinyl can sound much better today. I know CD's, on a highend player, can sound much better than what I experience at home, but the cost of these highend players is exorbitantly greater than what it cost for a decent TT/cartridge.

Quote Originally Posted by JohnMichael View Post
I think the dynamics between notes is better presented by vinyl than digital.
Perhaps this is what I hear as smearing? Maybe vinyl is better at reproducing the leading and trailing edges of the signal too?

I also noticed, on the record, that drums sounded more real and were better defined in the sound stage. The other thing that was extremely apparent was that piano strings would decay slowly like a real piano.

I have to admit that many years ago I heard a couple of good systems that produced a soundstage so real that I felt I could walk onto the stage and in between the players. This was from CD's. I never experienced this at home. One system had taken this too far, IMO, and the separation was too great. It was kind of odd because while everyone in the recording were playing the same song, it didn't congeal together. It was as if you had five people doing their own thing.