Rick-An Ordinary Fool
Well-Known Member
We have come a long way in how music is available to purchase today. When I was growing up, I still remember going with my parents to the department store (it was sorta like an everything store from paints to lawn to household and they had a record section) it was filled with the latest 8 track tapes and LP's. As I got into my teen years it was heading down to the latest record store like Peaches Records and Tapes or Musicland in the malls. I would always head to Olivia's section and then Carpenters and even the 12" LP sections of which Peaches always had a huge supply. I've got some 12" LPs from those very days still in my collection.
Then Cd's took hold and I stopped collecting LP's. It was all about CD's and my LP's took back seat.
Fast forward to today and I was saying to myself...have CD's actually hurt my listening experience? Do CD's allow me to make sacrifices in sound for convenience?
Since the fiasco with the Carpenters Vinyl Box Collection, I have been back to visiting all my original LP's from the 70's and 80's (most I have replaced with sealed copies over the years) and I am now in the process of ripping all these through Audacity to allow for on the go listening. I'm currently on CTY (which was one of the sealed originals I got many years ago) and I am blown away at the sonics. I listen to this and you really get immersed in how a song can start off softly then build like We've Only Just Begun and you hear all the highs and lows without leaving any fatigue to the ear. In fact it's so good that I don't want to stop listening and look forward to how the next song is going to intrigue my ears.
I've realized I've lost some of this excitement/experience with the age of CD's. For instance at one point I thought that the Carpenters 35th anniv CD box set from Japan was all the rage on CD until I started going back to the original LP's and hearing how much more I'm getting sound wise as a listener than the CD version. I know all CD's are not like this but in my quest to obtain the best sounding CD's (of the Carpenters work) has sorta left me still wanting more, maybe the next CD will be better so I buy the next CD and it's still not enough so I buy another CD etc...
So today I'm realizing that a good clean original pressing LP is worth it's weight in gold to the sound of some of these CD's and even the 2017 remastered LP's that I've had the chance to hear don't compare to the original 70's & 80's pressings.
So has CD's sacrificed your listening experience for the quest of hearing the best possible sound from your favorite artist? CD's are more convenient pop them in and go while LP's take more of your time to preserve and keep in good condition.
I always ask myself when I get back into my LP's why do they sound so good to me, why do the vocals pop out more and instruments sound so crisp and clear, the highs and lows just sound better to me, why is that happening in this format and I don't get that same experience with the same album on the CD format?
I know this topic has been debated before but I'd like to hear your opinions.
Then Cd's took hold and I stopped collecting LP's. It was all about CD's and my LP's took back seat.
Fast forward to today and I was saying to myself...have CD's actually hurt my listening experience? Do CD's allow me to make sacrifices in sound for convenience?
Since the fiasco with the Carpenters Vinyl Box Collection, I have been back to visiting all my original LP's from the 70's and 80's (most I have replaced with sealed copies over the years) and I am now in the process of ripping all these through Audacity to allow for on the go listening. I'm currently on CTY (which was one of the sealed originals I got many years ago) and I am blown away at the sonics. I listen to this and you really get immersed in how a song can start off softly then build like We've Only Just Begun and you hear all the highs and lows without leaving any fatigue to the ear. In fact it's so good that I don't want to stop listening and look forward to how the next song is going to intrigue my ears.
I've realized I've lost some of this excitement/experience with the age of CD's. For instance at one point I thought that the Carpenters 35th anniv CD box set from Japan was all the rage on CD until I started going back to the original LP's and hearing how much more I'm getting sound wise as a listener than the CD version. I know all CD's are not like this but in my quest to obtain the best sounding CD's (of the Carpenters work) has sorta left me still wanting more, maybe the next CD will be better so I buy the next CD and it's still not enough so I buy another CD etc...
So today I'm realizing that a good clean original pressing LP is worth it's weight in gold to the sound of some of these CD's and even the 2017 remastered LP's that I've had the chance to hear don't compare to the original 70's & 80's pressings.
So has CD's sacrificed your listening experience for the quest of hearing the best possible sound from your favorite artist? CD's are more convenient pop them in and go while LP's take more of your time to preserve and keep in good condition.
I always ask myself when I get back into my LP's why do they sound so good to me, why do the vocals pop out more and instruments sound so crisp and clear, the highs and lows just sound better to me, why is that happening in this format and I don't get that same experience with the same album on the CD format?
I know this topic has been debated before but I'd like to hear your opinions.