Quote Originally Posted by Smokey View Post
If somebody ask you to catagorize main stream physical audio formats from past to present in term of sound quality, how would you rank them?

Here is my list starting from lowest fidelity to highest:

Cassette Tapes
8-track tapes
Vinyl LP record
Compact Disc (CD)
Reel to Reel (commercial version)
SACD
DVD-Audio (DVD-A)
Blu-ray
What about FM radio? And MP3 (which SlumpBuster as already mentioned)?

There isn't as much on FM as there once was, though I still listen a bit. I always liked FM sound from a good tuner when reception was good. For many years I used an analog-tuned Denon TU-500 and today a quartz-tuned Denon TU-767, both very decent tuners.

I was very impressed over the years with live music recorded by the CBC; I suspect they used minimal microphoning and the results were terrific. However I also really enjoyed music that I knew originated from CD -- somehow it seem mellower than CD.

Now, it's interesting that various informal studies have found that many people prefer MP3, especially 256+ kbps, to CD. Here again the effect is typically mellower than CD, (also less resolved and airy, of course).

So there we have it: FM, MP3, and vinyl are all preferred to CD by various people under various circumstances. All these media filter digital sound to sound mellower; they sort of "deburr" the sound to the approbation of those of us with more delicate ears -- or who just can't handle the truth.