Quote (rfbfire @ Thu, Jan 1 2009, 05:38am)

I personally prefer Vinyl but use my iPod far more often.
When it comes to storage capacity, portability and convenience there is just no argument. CDs or mp3s are far better. that being said,
The difference between vinyl and CDs is that a CD is recorded digitally and a vinyl is an analog recording. Digital recordings are a series of snapshots of the actual sounds, therefore, do not capture the complete soundwaves. Analog, however, is what we hear in real life. A vinyl, though not completely perfect, has a copy of the actual sound carved onto it microscopically. But, any dust or minor imperfections are also picked up and amlified resulting in the static that is heard when listening to a imperfect vinyl.
It really boils down to what equipment you have and what level of audiophile you are.

A really good turntable (at least a Linn-Sondek or Thorens) coupled with high end speakers playing a virgin vinyl, half speed master version of a well recorded album will ALWAYS sound better than the CD on the same system. There's no question.

Here's a good illustration I found on the How Stuff Works website.
http://img242.imageshack.us/img242/1025/question487ar2.gif

Quote (BovineDesi @ Thu, Jan 1 2009, 09:33am)

hm i never actually knew that DVD's had better sound quality than CD's -- and though I do appreciate quality speakers (I even got myself $100 bose earbuds) I really couldn't care too much for a vinyl record. Not because they're old, but like you said, for it to sound good you need to take good care of it. Plus CD's are smaller, and more convenient -- I don't dj at all, so I'm not really affected by the difference in quality.

Quote (Bes @ Thu, Jan 1 2009, 10:54pm)

yea but this is dvd audio, not regular dvd, regular dvd has the same sampling rate/discretization as CD for audio I think

I have a decent vinyl turntable and quite large collection of vinyls too. But it's too much of a hassle now, I don't listen to cd's either, mp3 320kbps is fine.

Quote (BovineDesi @ Thu, Jan 1 2009, 10:37pm)

Do you know if CD's have worse sound quality than Vinyl simply because its a digital recording, or is it to reduce cost? As in could they be brought up to standard?