Vinyl sound versus CD question

[Richard Guba]

OK,

I have listended to several old LPs on my system and they sound "better" to me than CDs. I am an electrical engineer and I understand sampling Shannon's theories and all of the math behind it. So i know in theory you can sample and fully recover the required frequencies.

Here is my question. When I listen to John Coltrane's "Soul Trane" or Grover Washington Jr "Then and Now" the sound is more "centered" to me than on a CD. It sounds like the band is in my living room. Is this because of the RIAA curve or the reduced stereo separation on the cartridge versus a cd?

By the way, the Grover Album was from 1988 and was available on CD so the recording I believe was digital to begin with. So the issue is not with the source tapes. I also like Miles Davis "Miles Ahead" better on vinyl from an LP that says it is digitally remastered (for the CD release I guess). For each of these albums the master was digital.

I am thinking that it sounds better to my ears because I may prefer less stereo separation, the RIAA curve, and the compression required for an LP. I do not necessarily buy the argument that vinyl is better agument since I have plenty of bad sounding vinyl.

What do the learned members of the forum think.

Thanks

Rich

[Deang]

Is the pic in your avatar a Grundig?

[Richard Guba]

Yes it is Grundig,

I have a German 3060 HI-FI Zauber Klang (Magic Sound?) that was once my grandfather's.

All markings are in German and has piano type keys for short wave, medium wave and long wave. It is all tube. My Grandfather was born in 1904 and emigrated in 1923. He listened to German short wave on the Grundig. When he died no one in the family other than me was interested in the radio so it became mine. It is a cool old unit that still works. The plug is the German round type unit so it is used with an adapter.

Rich