I think that when we start dampening the music around it sounds less wet...or is it less dry...
On another note; the involvement with analog LPs is like sex in itself; there is an active physical attraction that is not there with CDs.
CDs can sound superior, and they do to, I think (I'm no pro expert), in some cases, but the physical activity is passive.
Anyway, it made me think of this: Is the sex better when listening to LPs or CDs...in general?
Yes, it sounds like an amusing question, but it's an interesting question and for different people it can have various type of deep attractions...stimulating and spiritual devotions. And remember too, a LP last about 20 minutes on average (30 @ most, but very rare), some CDs can last 80 minutes.
The sound quality, just the sound quality, nothing else; close your eyes, don't look @ your LP spinning, forget the ritual of dropping the needle on the record, just sit down in your chair and use strictly your ears, not your eyes and no touching, sex included, and don't even think @ the total cost between an analog rig and a digital one...only one thing...the sound quality. I think it's almost even. But I'm not sure @ all because I'm not a pro expert and I have never experienced the ultimate in neither medium...read state-of-the-art LP and CD playback.
Only the ones who did have a better grip on the handle.
When we talk audio we can only talk about our own experience, in our own homes, @ friend's homes, @ audio shows and music concert venues where we have been. Some of us have more experience than others; me I have almost zero experience so I am mostly expressing an opinion based on that fact.
All the audio readings that I did; what they accumulated to? To not much more than what I'm listening to today (music) and from the audio gear I purchased.
Don't look @ the money audio investment, just look purely @ the sound quality of the music recordings being reproduced by your own audio gear in your own room.
Now, what are we here for? Exactly, to share our own accumulated experience with our own music we love listening to and from the gear we purchased.
...Our own experiences, including some measurements we performed and in always relation to what ultimately reaches our ears @ the end of that complex audio tunnel.
So, do CDs sound better than LPs? ...In my own minimal of no importance experience, it depends...of the music recordings themselves of these two mediums; one analog and the other digital.
Me I never experienced LPs sounding digital, just among the format itself some LPs recorded digitally sounds less involving to me.
So yes, that unique euphony I get from LP listening is pleasant in my personal experience, and what sound better quality wise is not necessarily accurate and measuring better for all people, I think, I only think because I cannot speak for other's ears, rooms, audio gear and emotions.
Some CDs sound awfully bad, excruciatingly bad, and others sublimely good, superlatively good.
Now, let's enter the financial investment into the equation; it's fun and it's fair too. ...And besides, we learn few things from it.
Then it's your turn to share, because I don't have that personal physical experience with state-of-the-art analog and digital audio rigs.
And I bet that measurements can also account to what relations they have with our listening music sessions from the audio gear reproducing it.
It's fun to read about articles like the one in the original post and read people's comments, it's fun and we learn some from it.
Us humans we are so fragile and easily disturbed emotionally when confronted with stress, pressure, contradiction and rejection.
We naturally, instinctively react to our environment, to words spoken and written...the language of audio communication...in some audio forums of the World Wide Web. We instinctively attribute our greater knowledge from experience in our lines of work and social status in life. Our ways to interact with each other reflect some of it too. What we think and how we perceive ourselves under solid light is deflected by our own audio experience to a certain extent.
I think it's not easy to detach our human emotions from audio science, because it involves sound perceptions, music involvement.
The analysis in acoustics and in better sound reproduction is our tool to higher music expansion on an emotional level.
Musicians in general don't have hi-end audio rigs. They are more into the sound of their own instruments then the ones reproducing them.
And like us they follow the trends...78s, open-reel-tape decks, LPs, CDs, hi-res audio music files.
Check you pro friend musicians, look @ their pro audio gear and their musical instruments. Look @ their home stereo hi-fi sound systems @ home.
See if you can spot a turntable first, and one that costs over ten grands...god lock. And it means nothing.
Do CDs sound better than LPs? ...It depends.