Âé¶¹ÒùÔº

July 12, 2016

Does music sound better on vinyl records than on CDs?

Credit: Ingimage
× close
Credit: Ingimage

Vinyl is back, no doubt about it. Sales of vinyl records have been soaring, although they still represent only a tiny fraction of the music industry's revenues: about 2 percent in 2014. Is this growth because, as some respected sources breathlessly state—I'm looking at you, Wired magazine—vinyl sounds better than digital media? Or is there some sort of retro-hype going on?

It's true that some really don't sound very good. Low-bit-rate MP3 makes compromises in fidelity, as does low-bit-rate AAC, the higher-tech successor to MP3 that is used by iTunes and YouTube. Low-bit-rate AAC files are also what you typically hear on Pandora, Spotify and SoundCloud, and on your phone. While they are OK for casual listening in the gym or the car, many people can hear their limitations in a quiet environment.

But what about compact discs, which some claim compromise the listening experience as well? Certainly the act of putting a record on a turntable and having to change it every 20 minutes makes the listener feel more involved with the music. It's different from sitting back and letting your CD changer do its thing. However, by any measurable criterion, CDs are superior to LPs. And so are MP3 and AAC files with bit rates above 300k, which in most cases are indistinguishable from CDs. Here are the reasons why:

CDs reflect exactly what the artists recorded in the studio. Vinyl distorts it. Some listeners honestly feel that the defects vinyl introduces somehow make it more attractive or "warmer." But from any objective standpoint, there's no justification in calling the sound of vinyl records "better."

Get free science updates with Science X Daily and Weekly Newsletters — to customize your preferences!

Provided by Tufts University

Load comments (31)

This article has been reviewed according to Science X's and . have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

Get Instant Summarized Text (GIST)

This summary was automatically generated using LLM.