The Vinyl Revolution
My turntable found its way to my apartment today. As soon as I got it, I opened it up, assembled it, and spun Black Sabbath's "Heaven and Hell" album. I immediately remembered the differences between analog and digital music. Off of vinyl, the music sounds richer, with more vibrancy and more detail. The drawbacks (the static and pop of the dust) were minimal on this particular record, due to it being almost brand new. Just to see if this was a fluke, I then put on Led Zeppelin III, which has seen much more wear and dust than the Black Sabbath LP. The music still sounded great, but the static and pops were more pronounced, and the record did briefly skip a couple of times. The same richness and vibrancy stayed with the music, however. Just to run one more test, I grabbed Led Zeppelin's "Physical Grafitti" and spun both records (yes, it's a double album). Neither of the records were in as bad of shape as Led Zeppelin III, but still weren't as clean and unabused as Heaven and Hell. And they both sounded great. Listening to all of these albums on CD just isn't the same as listening to them from an analog source. I'm sure the mastering may have a bit to do with it (none of my CD versions of these albums are remastered), but there are still obvious differences between the two types of media. I wouldn't necessarily rate one superior over the other, as they both have their place. I won't even try saying that vinyl has as clear of a sound as a CD, because this definitely is not true. But classic rock that originated from the vinyl age just doesn't seem to sound as good in the digital realm.
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