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Comment by jensgk | Hacker News Reader

Vinyl record is just a temporary fad. CDs will be the next thing. After all the only advantage vinyl records have over CD's is the bigger artwork on their covers. All the disadvantages: worse sound, scratches, getting worse for each play, storage, maintenance of the record and record player etc. will come back in mind. People would still like to own their favorite music, however, both because you can't always rely on streaming having the right edition of your favorite records, but also because you can show off your collection as a cultural signifier in your home, - just like books.

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The only advantage of vinyl is the older stuff was mastered properly, and people incorrectly attributed the "it sounds better" factor to the medium not the mastering:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war

Sometimes you can find a good CD version of an album by consulting: https://dr.loudness-war.info/

"Properly" still entails RIAA equalization with munged up bass.

Yes but relatively a lot better.

Ideal scenario is a remaster from original master tapes without compression onto CD.

This is one reason why I buy CDs from discogs.com - because I can specify which pressing to buy, and avoid the ones that have been remastered 2 or 3 times.

I will also buy from Mobile Fidelity (mofi.com), who sell audiophile heavyweight virgin vinyl and hybrid SACDs.

I think the plus side is also the experience that the format brings. Vinyl present itself as an alternative "romantic" experience compared with subscription services and just like books it has something inherently more relatable as something physical. The waveforms may be decreasing its quality each play but just like every object in the world which is nice.

The sound quality is worse, but that doesn’t mean it’s not preferable. If you listen to music with a decent dynamic range and has some breathing room, then the sonic qualities of vinyl can enhance that.

The same goes for cassettes. There’s been a (small) resurgence of cassettes, mostly from heavier types of music. There’s something about the harshness and hiss to tapes that fits really well with metal and punk.

As to the collection thing - a buddy has a growing vinyl collection and a decent, mid-range stereo that he pieces together. It’s a system much like my dad put together when I was growing up. Listening to music on a real sound system that you’ve tweaked to a particular room is a far more rewarding experience than ear buds or even the best headphones.

I find headphones to be isolating and uncomfortable after a short time. And playing music from a phone speaker is dreadful.

I'm still not sure if I agree with McLuhan that "the medium is the message", but I think it is definitely at least part of the message. There will always be something special about a first edition, an original manuscript, and hearing music on its native media.

And between headphones, phone speakers, audiophile sound systems, and live music, I choose all of them.

I think that playing music on real speakers and 'for the room' is the actual magic. If you put the same time and energy into just setting up a decent stereo system that works well then the medium doesn't mater.

The only reason why sound quality would be "worse" on CD than on vinyl was already mentioned: It sometimes is, or at least used to be, intentionally mastered with less dynamic range. There is no way vinyl can otherwise compete with CDs dynamic range of 96dB at up to 22kHz.

But I get your point, the way a vinyl record and its player make the sound "worse" can potentially enhance the listening experience, even if a sound engineer could have applied the same effect on the audio that got put on the CD.

Like a CRT screen with old video games.

> It sometimes is, or at least used to be, intentionally mastered with less dynamic range.

Right. Agreed on this. Mastering for the particular medium is a big part of the final outcome.

> The sound quality is worse, but that doesn’t mean it’s not preferable. If you listen to music with a decent dynamic range and has some breathing room, then the sonic qualities of vinyl can enhance that.

So it’s a lot like taking photos with Instagram filters. You are distorting the signal but you think it looks/sounds better.

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