Sound Quality Vinyl Vs Digital

Maybe it was coincidence but vinyl began its resurgence at around the same time as recordings started this trend.

Sound quality vinyl vs digital. Cds have a better signal to noise ratio i e. Even the standard redbook cd 44khz 16 bit resolution has about a 26db advantage to vinyl with respect to dynamic range and at least a 40 50 db advantage in stereo separation as well as unmeasurable wow and flutter. Digital got its act together but not until the death of the cd. By every measure digital audio is superior to analog.

The answer lies in the difference between analog and digital recordings. Sonically vinyl has both strengths. 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. Take a look at the graph below.

These days many records are made using playback of a. Lots of audiophiles say that when it comes to sound quality nothing beats vinyl. Sound quality depends on a lot of factors and it is impossible to definitively state that either analog or digital is fundamentally better. A vinyl record is an analog recording and cds and dvds are digital recordings.

The quality of a digital reproduction is dictated by how many of those samples of the original are made. There is less interference from hissing turntable rumble etc better stereo channel separation and have no variation in playback speed. These purists wonder if digital files can really give you that analog sound of our youth. Playing audio files is gigantically more convenient than playing an lp digital converter technology is getting better every year and high resolution files are clearer than the best lps.

Original sound is analog by definition. Sound quality from a technical standpoint digital cd audio quality is clearly superior to vinyl. And when cds first. The vinyl lp is a format based on technology that hasn t evolved much over the last six decades.

There s another far superior reason why vinyl is better than lossy digital formats. In some ways it s the audio equivalent of driving a ford pilot. The problem here is that it had a tremendous result on the audio quality.