White Album Better on Vinyl?

michelej1 · #1 10-28-2007, 12:56 PM

This is an excerpt from an article about retro music making a comeback

http://www.flatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dl...710280310/1005

Plenty of fans still love their vinyl albums, retro tapes

Fred Migliore, whose free-form radio show FM Odyssey on WFIT 89.5 FM is nationally syndicated, says more artists are trying to re-create that old-fashioned sound quality.

"A lot of people that are making CDs now are beginning to go back to recording them through original analog material," he says.

Even he will run CD music through old tube equipment to warm up the sound when he plays it on the radio.

"I'm not saying that I don't like the way CDs sound," Migliore says. "The majority of what I play is on CD."

But there are a lot of old albums that didn't make it to CD, he says, and some still sound better on vinyl -- for instance, the 1975 self-titled Fleetwood Mac album, which he used to take to stereo stores as a test record.

"That vinyl version from 1975 still outperforms anything you can put on CD," he says.

There are other things he loves about vinyl, his favorite format.

"When you get to be my age," he says, "I don't think I would have been able to appreciate 'Sgt. Pepper' from the Beatles if the cover of that album had been 5 by 5 inches."

Sarah · #2 10-28-2007, 06:05 PM

I definitely prefer it on vinyl. There really is something magical about the white album... I like to play it as it was intended to be heard.

Villavic · #3 10-28-2007, 08:18 PM

Mirage CD does suck. Vinyl album is far better

golddustwoman77 · #4 10-29-2007, 10:38 AM

I have an MFSL audiophile copy of the white album, and of course it sounds even better than the regular vinyl. I think vinyl sounds warmer and more real than CD anyway.

Sarah · #5 10-29-2007, 10:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by golddustwoman77

I have an MFSL audiophile copy of the white album, and of course it sounds even better than the regular vinyl. I think vinyl sounds warmer and more real than CD anyway.

I have that one as well. It is awesome. I don't have a decent turntable anymore though.. just a junk one.. so I haven't played it in a while. I also have a white vinyl copy of the white album, but I haven't listened to it to see if there's any difference. I think it's probably just the same as the regular release, just a novelty version.

kenzo · #6 10-29-2007, 07:42 PM

I have the MFSL version and also the white vinyl version of the White Album.

SpyNote · #7 11-04-2007, 05:06 AM

I still collect vinyl, but I could never get over its limitations, specifically the scratchiness. I'd imagine today's digital recordings have finally caught up, if not exceeded the high fidelity of vinyl... The remastered edition of the white album sounds incredible on my system.

Sarah · #8 11-05-2007, 02:47 PM

I adore the pops and crackles of vinyl. But. A good turntable, high-quality needle, and a well-cared-for record make the warmest sounding music possible, I think. The perfection of digital audio is just too clinical for me sometimes.

Peestie · #9 11-05-2007, 06:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sarah

I adore the pops and crackles of vinyl. But. A good turntable, high-quality needle, and a well-cared-for record make the warmest sounding music possible, I think. The perfection of digital audio is just too clinical for me sometimes.

It's not just the "perfection" of digital audio. If you have a CD it will be at 16bit and 44.1kHz. 44.1kHz means that the maximum frequency that the audio can contain is approximately 22kHz (the maximum value any human can hear is 20kHz). Analog recordings is not limited to this. There are frequencies in analog recordings up 40-50kHz and although human beings cannot hear these frequencies they still interact with the 20kHz that we can hear and that contributes greatly to the "warmth" that vinyl has. A 128kHz digital recording can have as much warmth as a vinyl, but of couse as soon as you burn it to a CD it is converted to 16bit/44.1kHz and so all the "invisble" frequencies that add warmth are lost.

Or so I've read in a few places

golddustwoman77 · #10 11-06-2007, 12:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sarah

I adore the pops and crackles of vinyl. But. A good turntable, high-quality needle, and a well-cared-for record make the warmest sounding music possible, I think. The perfection of digital audio is just too clinical for me sometimes.

Are we related?

I totally agree. I have a good turntable, high-quality needle, and well-cared-for records, and they sound better than a CD anyday.

Nowadays, producers, engineers, etc. are "no noising" things to death and making them as loud as possible. These are the two things that record companies are doing right now that are ruining the sound quality of their recordings. I think all the background noise, etc. makes the recording real, and when you take that away, all you are left with is "computer" music.

JamieSPC · #11 11-06-2007, 05:05 PM

Quote:

But there are a lot of old albums that didn't make it to CD, he says, and some still sound better on vinyl -- for instance, the 1975 self-titled Fleetwood Mac album, which he used to take to stereo stores as a test record.

I'm actually sort of shocked by this...

The white album, while sounding great on the audiophile MFSL vinyl, is probably the noisiest of the BN-era vinyls. This has been documented (I wish I could remember where I read it so I could link to it). I think it was a manufacturing problem, not a mastering problem. The MFSL one is great though.

Now, as for Mirage... I'm 35, so I had only ever heard Mirage on CD since that was "the way" to buy it by the time I was old enough to spend my own money on music. When I bought the vinyl about ten years ago and heard it on a good turntable, it was a revelation, like hearing a whole new album. It sounded that different to me. I feel confident saying you haven't heard Mirage if you've only heard it on CD.

~Jamie