I had half the "albums" in the cowbell poll, as well as a number of the write ins, on 8 track, and vinyl. Bought my first CD player (Denon) in 1988 and a CD copy of Dark Side of the Moon to compare to a master recording on heavy vinyl. Close enough call to switch to CD's.
It's think it's tricky in most scenarios to get the comparison of CD to vinyl right. In the 80's, a decent CD player probably sounded better to many ears than a lot of the shitty turn tables of the day. But these days, dollar for dollar, a turn table should beat CD most of the time. If you have, say, a $1500 turn table going against a similar priced disc player, the vinyl will win so long as it was well mastered and in good condition. But a $2000 or $3000 CD player will beat the crap out of a cheaper $200 or $300 turntable, like the kind you see a lot of hipsters buying today.
Totally agree. For pure sound quality, analog devices will always have the potential to outperform digital devices, sound is analog after all. However, the difference becomes small, to unobservable, when the digital media and player closely approximates its analog counterparts. That Denon CD player I mentioned was exceptional in it's day, but it did cost much more than a comparable turntable with a high quality stylus and needle. Consumer grade CD players didn't match it's specifications for at least a decade. Anyway, with a worthy digital recording, it could reproduce sound very accurately from portable, durable media, which was the only real reason to consider CD's over (or in conjunction with) vinyl in those days.
Hated 8 track glad cassettes came about and saved my drive time.
Agree. Hated the "click click" between tracks, that happened mid song more often than not, and the propensity for the players to eat tapes. Cassettes were a huge improvement.
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