Vinyl vs CD
Vinyl vs CD: Which has a better sound quality?
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If you are a musicophile like I am, I am almost positive you have gotten into a debate about whether Vinyl sounds better than CD or vice versa. Well before we get into that discussion I would like to touch on the history of both of them.
Vinyl
In 1888 the very first flat vinyl record was invented by Emile Berliner which was made of vulcanized rubber. Berliner then eventually invented a mixture made out of shellac to make the discs even harder. Between the years of 1900-1960, the vinyl records only allowed about 2-5 minutes of playtime on each side. The next remarkable development for the vinyl record was back in 1948 when Columbia Records created the 30 cm vinyl record. These new vinyl records allowed about 20-30 minutes of playtime on each side vs the previous 2-5 minutes. Talk about a development!
It appears that once the CD was invented and released the sales of Vinyl records gradually started to decrease, until about 2010 when they started to advance again. Now, this is where the debate comes in, "Do Vinyl records have a greater audio quality than CDs?" Some people declare that the climb in vinyl record sales over the years is due to the incredible audio quality you receive from them.
Now let's discover the history of the CD!
Compact Disk (CD)
The first CD was invented in 1979 by James Russell. According to Cesca Fleischer from Autodesk.com, "The earliest technology resembling the CD-ROM was invented by James Russell, who worked for the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory at the United States Department of Energy. He hoped to create a way to store information so that it could be played back later and initially proposed digital preservation using photosensitive film. Russell wanted to replace vinyl records and wanted a device that could work without actual physical contact between the system’s parts." A year later the first CD player was invented in 1980 by Philips and Sony. Once the CD was released and easily assessable by Americans, the sales in vinyl records started to drop drastically. Between the sales of cassette tapes and CDs vinyl records were slowly starting to become a thing of the past.
Alright, now let's settle this debate!
VINYL RECORDS VS CDS: Which has the best sound quality?
For many this is not a debate at all, more of a personal preference when it comes to the audio quality of the two. Here is what Diffen has to say about the sound quality comparison from a technical standpoint, "digital CD audio quality is clearly superior to vinyl. CDs have a better signal-to-noise ratio (i.e. there is less interference from hissing, turntable rumble, etc.), better stereo channel separation, and have no variation in playback speed." CDs also are more durable, they are heat and humidity resistant. But along with Vinyl records they are still vulnerable to becoming scratched. Vinyl records often become damaged from continuos use, heat, or improper storage techniques. Some people claim experiencing nostalgia when placing the needle on an album that has sentimental significance, and that's why vinyl sounds better than CD or so they claim.
Here is a great video I found on YouTube that deciphers the audio difference between Vinyl and CD, I will let you decide which is better. :) As many can agree, it is hard to compare two very different audio outputs so take my information for what you will! If I am in a nostalgic mood, I will put on a record, otherwise I will stick with my stacks of CDs or my phone. And yes, I have stacks of CDs still!
Sources
Fleischer, Cesca. “The History of the CD-ROM: EAGLE: Blog.” Eagle Blog, 2 Feb. 2021, www.autodesk.com/products/eagle/blog/cd-rom/.
Hector. “History Of The Vinyl Record.” The Ambient Mixer Blog, 8 July 2016, blog.ambient-mixer.com/sound/history-of-the-vinyl-record/.
“CD vs Vinyl Record.” Diffen, www.diffen.com/difference/CD_vs_Vinyl_Record#:~:text=CDs and vinyl records are physically read by a needle.
My mom has vinyl records. We thought they were so cool when we were kids. We would sneak and play the records while she was at work. I think I would go with the cd as well because the turn table can become loud after a while. It was an interesting read.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, I never got to experience vinyl records, since the CD had already taken over by the time I was born. I found your post really interesting, the difference of sound quality between records and CDs was never something I considered. I had always assumed that people just liked CDs better because they were smaller, and easier to transport, or play. My family and I also have a very large stack of CDs that we still use. I certainly agree with you, it is very difficult to compare two different audio outputs. After listening to the video you included in your post, I think the CD might have sounded better. At least, it sounded louder in the video when the music came from the CD, but I feel like that could just be part of the recording. I think it would probably be easier to tell if you were actually in the room with a CD player and a record player, and used them to test the same song yourself. Personally, I have never actually used a record, so I would prefer a CD, since that is what I am comfortable with. I found an interesting article that explained some reasons why one might sound better than the other. According to it, CDs don’t record sound as accurately as records do, letting records have a richer sound than CDs. However, any little scratch or speck of dust that accumulates on the record will be heard as static when it is played. Also, CDs have been upgraded to increase their accuracy, leaving records further in the past. I imagine it is like you said, people will usually just use CDs, or digital music, only choosing records for nostalgic purposes.
ReplyDeleteHere is the link to the article I found: https://electronics.howstuffworks.com/is-the-sound-on-vinyl-records-better-than-on-cds-or-dvds.htm
Hi Candice! Interesting choice for this assignment, also a pretty cool choice. I learned a lot from reading your blog on vinyls and cds. I did not have much knowledge about them before. I simply have just used both but never compared the two. I originally wanted to say that I like vinyls better because of that rustic sound given by the record player but when I watched your video that you provided, it seemed to me that the cd had better audio quality. To me it seemed like the vinyl produced a sound that was much dampened than the cd. I recommend listening to the The Beach boys on a record player rather than cd, it gives more authentic sounds in my personal opinion. Great blog, I enjoyed learning from you!
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