Sound Quality Vinyl Vs Digital

Cd quality sits somewhere in the middle with 44 100 samples per second at 16 bit accuracy.

Sound quality vinyl vs digital.

The problem here is that it had a tremendous result on the audio quality. Sound quality depends on a lot of factors and it is impossible to definitively state that either analog or digital is fundamentally better. The vinyl lp is a format based on technology that hasn t evolved much over the last six decades. Take a look at the graph below.

Digital got its act together but not until the death of the cd. There s another far superior reason why vinyl is better than lossy digital formats. Cds have a better signal to noise ratio i e. In some ways it s the audio equivalent of driving a ford pilot.

And when cds first. A vinyl record is an analog recording and cds and dvds are digital recordings. It wasn t long before vinyl recordings of the same content often had better sound quality at normal listening volumes simply because they had higher dynamic range. Original sound is analog by definition.

Sonically vinyl has both strengths. Even the standard redbook cd 44khz 16 bit resolution has about a 26db advantage to vinyl with respect to dynamic range and at least a 40 50 db advantage in stereo separation as well as unmeasurable wow and flutter. The quality of a digital reproduction is dictated by how many of those samples of the original are made. Maybe it was coincidence but vinyl began its resurgence at around the same time as recordings started this trend.

Vinyl for the most part avoided the loudness war with the rise of digital music cds included it s possible to make a track sound louder than it naturally should. There is less interference from hissing turntable rumble etc better stereo channel separation and have no variation in playback speed. By every measure digital audio is superior to analog. Playing audio files is gigantically more convenient than playing an lp digital converter technology is getting better every year and high resolution files are clearer than the best lps.

These purists wonder if digital files can really give you that analog sound of our youth. Lots of audiophiles say that when it comes to sound quality nothing beats vinyl. Sound quality from a technical standpoint digital cd audio quality is clearly superior to vinyl.