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matthewb
@matthewb
this is Serious Gourmet Bait to get me to write a long hi-fi thread. maybe these could be sit and talk videos instead if there's any interest. * here's a tldr; on the hi-fi format wars in 2025: - vinyl is still enormously popular and many serious audiophiles optimize their entire system for vinyl playback rather than CD or streaming - despite CDs being largely forgotten by the average consumer, audiophiles still love CDs and often prefer them to streaming - streaming is becoming more and more prevalent, to the extent that it's the default for most showrooms. arguably the most complex and expensive to optimize vs. vinyl and CDs.
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matthewb
@matthewb
the interesting part of the vinyl question goes back to the history of digital mastering. prior to the early 70s, tracking and mixing was done on 1/4" to 2" analog tape but this started to change as digital recordings entered the LP catalogue around 1972. by the mid 80s, the majority of new mainstream releases were tracked or mixed on "digital tape" which used magnetic tape as a carrier but became 100% digital once passed through an A/D converter. in other words, from the mid 1980s onward you are likely listening to a digital recording whether it's on a CD or an LP. by 1988, CD sales surpassed LPs and the default source for vinyl pressings was redbook CD spec digital masters. at this point, the analog allure of the record starts to become a bit hazy: is the record really any more "analog" than a CD? the answer is basically "yes, if it's an all-analog pressing" however pressings that used a digital master can also sound great. the latter just happen to be ostensibly the same as a CD using the same source.
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kia
@kia.eth
ok this is intuitively what i felt was happening it's even worse today when you see albums from the last 10 years on vinyl and it kills me with the hipsterism like the record is produced, mixed and mastered on a DAW -- what exactly are you getting by pressing it? like you don't get anything added in the pressing. ok i'll stop
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matthewb
@matthewb
yeah at that point it’s a questionable value prop vs. a CD or digital file. I think the most appealing part of vinyl is the tactile ritual. that and you might have a cartridge and/or phono stage that adds a pleasing colouration or character to the music, which is also valid. it is admittedly harder to get digital playback to sound *really* good, whereas you can get vinyl playback sounding pleasant quite easily.
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