Why Is Vinyl Superior To Cd

Thus the well built stationary record player exists in the minds of many as a hi fi ideal despite the fact that cd quality over the same system would be superior.

Why is vinyl superior to cd.

There is less interference from hissing turntable rumble etc better stereo channel separation and have no variation in playback speed. The answer lies in the difference between analog and digital recordings. Vinyl is great but the idea that its sound quality is superior to that of uncompressed digital recordings is preposterous. Original sound is analog by definition.

A vinyl record is an analog recording and cds and dvds are digital recordings. What vinyl can t do. However that s not to say there aren t advantages to digital music. Vinyl may be an underdog to streaming but it has outlasted the cd.

The vinyl format can generate other issues. From a technical standpoint digital cd audio quality is clearly superior to vinyl. The quality of a digital reproduction is dictated by how many of those samples of the original are made. Vinyl is a limited market which attracts hipsters and enthusiasts.

Even as cd sales eclipsed and nearly exterminated vinyl the format was plagued by accusations that its sound was inferior that it was merely a convenient alternative to the lp. Cd quality sits somewhere in the middle with 44 100 samples per second at 16 bit accuracy. Records aren t exactly known for their portability for example. Vinyl is one of the best ways to listen to music.

It is why mp3 with relatively few samples is so poor and hi res audio with far more is the closest we have to a studio recording. They sound different and that s exactly the point. Comparison of a raw analog audio signal to the cd audio and dvd audio output. To many the superior sound quality and physical collection are enough to justify the investment.

Take a look at the graph below.