Mike Howe

A member of the Philip Greenspun's Homepage community since March 4, 1999

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March 4, 1999, on Stereos of the Rich and Famous:
I think that there are two very important points that seem overlooked in this discussion (of LP's vs CD's). They are: 1)the differences in dynamic range between the two formats; and 2)that, due to the inescapable laws of chaos, every recording always differs from another in some way. Both formats have examples of good and bad recordings, so merely saying that "LP (or CD)sounds better" isn't valid. Just because a particular recording may sound better as an LP (or CD)doesn't mean much since we are all at the mercy of any given engineer's taste, not to mention coloration introduced by the listening room or the playback equipment. Every engineer hears sound differently and has his own opinion of how closely it matches the original; or, perhaps, how much "doctoring" the signal needs. I believe that much of the controversy surrounding LP's and CD's has to do with dynamic range. LP's many times seem to have more ambiance and subtle detail than CD's, at least until you turn the CD up. Mos...