Bought CD Vs Needledrop CD-R ?

Why buy a CD when I have the record to record ?

The only reason i can see, besides it being easier, is to check if it might sound better. Such as a release from a well known 'Producer' ( is that the right title?) such as our host.

 

It depends on how well you can transfer it I guess.

 

I have bought a lot of cds for the bonus tracks when I already had a suitable needledrop.
I hate it when I do this and the needledrop slaughters the cd.

Some folks have more money than time (when the economy's good).
You can impulse-buy a cd but you cannot rush a needledrop, it takes hours to make a good one.

One co-worker brought in the deluxe edition of Mad Dogs & Englishmen
to loan to me for the day, I brought it back to him and when he asked
"what did you think" he winced even before I spoke: he had already heard
how clipped it was in his car (thanks to you, Suha Gur).

 

To eliminate surface noise, the limited channel separation, rumble, room noise artifacts and airborne sounds, dust build up on stylus, limited low frequency range common to many LP masters.

I guess thats kinda like asking would you want your vinyl album sourced from the master tape or from another vinyl copy?

I doubt anyone in their right mind would choose a vinyl record SOURCED from Vinyl......!

 

Still the best version of DSOTM I got is a Hi Rez ND made with a 8.000 dollar cart on a 20.000 dollar tabl . Beats my own Back To Black 180 gram and all of the3 Cd versions flying . A reall good needledrop esp on 24 bit has an astonishing musical sound. The fact, that a mastertape still sounds better has nothing to do with a CD or digital media being superior. Those master tapes are also analog.
What really sounds disguting is a LP sourced from CD, cause the producer couldn't get access to the master tape and doesn*t want to use a Vinyl copy because of surface noise. That is the equivalent to a noise reduced read = butchered CD.
Happened to the Virgin Front Line 1999 LP re-issues. Master Tapes were lost, so they used the early 80ies flat transfer CD as source. Never before did I hear such a flat lifeless LP performance - i'd rather take a noisy recycled vinyl copy from Jamaica over that any day. Same for those CD's - They simply miss all the wamth and magic the original 7"es 12"es and albums have in spades...

 

I tend to think mastering is what determines how any media sounds. Your example, means the CD master was not great sounding, nothing to do with the CD itself.

 

You obviously haven't heard many good needle drops. 9 times out of ten i'd prefer a needle drop of a piece of quality vinyl rather than a poorly transferred, compressed, eq'd buggered about with official cd.

 

I'd say more than half the CD's in my collection have been replaced by Vinyl sourced CD-R's. Sure, Ive found some crap vinyl rips, but the majority of them I end up with are VERY well done and blow away their store bought CD counterpart. For me its a no brainer, you get the best of both worlds: superior vinyl mastering with the convenience of a CD.

 

No, ive heard some great ones, honestly. But I understand what you are saying, but you are just saying you dont like bad mastering.

 

That is still a bad cd no?

 

Blown away?

So you prefer the mastering on the old vinyl basically is what you are saying?

Or you could say the worst of both worlds also......

The somewhat limited resolution of CD and all the noise and physical issues with vinyl.

 

Hmm.......sort of....

Mastering is mastering to me.

I dont say a CD sounds bad, I say the mastering is not to my liking. Ive heard many vinly records that sound just okay or adequate, and I dont think it being "vinyl" makes it sound bad per se, but it was just a bad recording or not great mastering.


Everything we hear at home is simply a copy of a master tape.

 

You just described the reissued Silver Apples cd and vinyl currently in print,
and a LOT of Sony, See For Miles, Cherry Red, Bam Caruso, etc.'s reissues
of the Immediate Records' catalog (and many other sixties pop acts' catalogs).

 

Buddy, you just read my mind and quoted me to everyone else!

 

I prefer the uncompressed, dynamic mastering that you generally find on most vinyl. As far as noise and "physical issues" (?) go, there are programs that (when used properly) can remove those things without damaging the music.

Most of the rips I acquire are not of "old" music, but mostly of albums that came out during the '90's and up. Thats when CD mastering started going down the toilet. I have great vinyl rips of my favorite artists from that period (Beck, Pearl Jam, Radiohead, Tom Waits, etc.) that typically blow away the store bought CD's. As far as the "limited resolution" of CD's go I simply dont hear enough of a difference between 16/44 and 24/96 to be bothered by it.

 

I know a lot is, but I think somehow the additive effect bothers me. To use vinyl for the master and make vinyl from it. Its combining the noise of 2 vinyl surfaces and the rumble and so on. Sure it "might" sound okay, but seems like somehow combining all these random sounds would cause unusual phase issues and so on with the noise.

I mean how many copies of a copy of vinyl would make it sound bad to you?

After a while all the imperfections become additive with surface noise being out of phase and so on.

 

I've bought some legal needledrops that were so clean it took several listens
or a change in speakers to determine that I was in fact listening to a needledrop.

 

Sony had the rights to issue the Immediate catalog around 1990 and did so,
although they did not have tape sources to work from.

They worked very hard to make those cds sound nice, and they do!

You know, the Ringo version of 'Love Me Do' on cd and 12" is also a needledrop.

 

It seems to me that it comes down to which one we like the sound of ( Vinyl or CD ) for any given music.
Also whether we've got the money to keep buying the same music to find out if it sounds better, or if we have the time, hardware,software and skills to do a good CD-R.

 

If I want the commercial CD packaging to put my CD-R in with.

 

X 2!

 

Needledrops are the winner by a huge margin.(You gotta have a decent system)
CDs are its sick sibling (they are VERY convenient, though)....
I have yet to listen to a CD that will blow away its LP counterpart.
My conversion of PF WYWH SQ LP to Quad DVDA is a sonic masterpiece and the cd version I had and sold (the sought after 35DP-4, which to me sounds like the LP played through a muffled speaker)...
I have given up on CDs-I only get the ones that are only available in that format.
Fortunately , music sucks nowadays, so very few CDs find their way to my house...
CDS will NEVER sound better than LPs, period...
I recently needledropped TFF's "The seeds of Love" and I couldn't believe how it blew away both CDs(the original and remaster) in spite of it being a VERY bad pressing...(as long as it's only clicks and not loud surface noise , it's fine)
I also agree with you -if you have the LP-why get the CD?
Even when I started getting CDs from the 80's to a couple of years ago, I NEVER bought many CD versions of LPs cause the vinyl sounded better....
BTW, just go for ClickRepair-it'll be the best $40 ever invested.

 

If a needle-drop cd-r sounds better than the available cd, thats what I will listen to.
This is the case with many I have. The needle-drop cd-r's have better tone.

 

The Cars, MoFi needledrop of the vinyl slays every cd version I've heard so far. Absolutely stunning!
And I'm betting that a needledrop of an early lp pressing beats even that.

That being said - keep in mind the playback equipment you have.
Nothing beats the Sterling earliy pressings of that title on vinyl.

 

Find me a needle drop that has *zero* distortion and I might start listening to them.. until then, original CD issues win it for me every time.

And yes, I have heard some of the ones that people praise highly.