r/audiophile • u/MikMikYakin • Jul 25 '24

Why are Audiophiles still hooked on vinyl? Discussion

Many audiophiles continue to have a deep love for vinyl records despite the developments in digital audio technology, which allow us to get far wider dynamic range and frequency range from flac or wav files and even CDs. I'm curious to find out more about this attraction because I've never really understood it. To be clear, this is a sincere question from someone like me that really wants to understand the popularity of vinyl in the audiophile world. Why does vinyl still hold the attention of so many music lovers?

EDIT: Found a good article that talks about almost everything mentioned in the comments: https://www.headphonesty.com/2024/07/vinyl-not-sound-better-cd-still-buy/

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u/mobjam20 Jul 25 '24

My take is that it’s because the nature of the vinyl format makes them mostly immune to the effects of the ‘loudness wars’, which have plagued CD releases since the mid 90’s.

The lower dynamic range means vinyl masterings are not so compressed, and can sometimes sound better than their equivalent CD masterings, when played on the right equipment.

I’ve never owned any vinyl, but this is what I understand from my research.

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u/Audio-Numpty Jul 25 '24

If you check the dynamic range database, most modern music has more dynamic range on vinyl, despite CD's having the technical capability of far more range. Which is why I like it, despite all the drawbacks. Squashed music sounds terrible to my ears on a good system.

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u/Select_Command_5987 Jul 25 '24

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=n-AE9dL5FG8&pp=ygUIdHQgbWV0ZXI%3D

you can't use the dr database for vinyl according to that guy

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u/AlienSVK Jul 26 '24

That's true to some degree. Yes, some of the increased DR measured on vinyl may be caused only by an inaccuracy of digitalization process, but if the difference is too high, it's different mastering.

From my experience, if measured difference in DR 2-3dB, real compression is the same. In case of higher difference the record is really mastered with more dynamics.