LPs that actually do sound better?, Somebody Should Make a List Options

[tonybelding]

Hi all. . . I'm new here, but I've been pointed towards this site many times in the past to settle questions about audio -- especially about digital compression.

So anyhow. . . I got me a turntable!

What prompted me to get it was a series of records that National Geographic published back in the 70s and which never were released on CD. They were high production quality stuff: gatefold, elaborate liner notes, etc. It was supposed to be a history of American music -- an early example of edu-tainment, you might say. I fondly remembered some of these from when I was little, and I thought it would be cool to collect the LPs (thanks to the modern miracle of eBay) and digitize them, and put them in my iTunes library. QED, right?

I first thought I'd get one of those cheap USB turntables, but then I did a little research and found out they were basically crummy, so of course I wanted a better one. . . and one thing led to another. I ended up with a Technics SL-D2 with a Shure M95ED cartridge, which seems to be working pretty well so far. It's been a long time since I had a turntable, and this is way better than any I had before.

So, I dug out some other old LPs. One that particularly pleases me is Blue Oyster Cult's The Revolution By Night. It sounds way better than the CD. The CD is one of those early releases that were. . . messed up. I don't know exactly what the explanation is, but it seems around 1984-86 there were a fair number of CDs that came out sounding thin, harsh and bright. I suspect it had something to do with the mad rush to convert whole back catalogs ASAP while engineers were still getting used to the new format and equipment.

Adding insult to injury, the CD was a "budget" release with the (excellent IMHO) cover art shrunk to about cassette size and surrounded with a useless border proclaiming what a bargain it was. The sleeve art was jettisoned entirely. Gee thanks, CBS Records!

I've tinkered with the CD rip before, applying equalization -- greatly reducing the higher frequencies -- and re-normalizing it, and I was able to make the CD sound a lot better. Even so, apparently I never totally figured it out, because the LP still sounds better to me.

At the end of this long story, I'm left wondering. . . Can anybody suggest other LPs that are notably better than their CD release? I mean examples where the CD was messed up in some way, whether it was equalization or over-compression, clipping, whatever, while the LP was OK. Bonus points could be awarded if the LP has great cover art, gatefold art, etc!

We could even make a list of these; it seems like somebody ought to.

[kraut]

One of the few Lps that sounded better than CD - Kind of Blue....until the remastered and pitch corrected version came along.

Any of the Robin Trower's LPs I have sound better digitally (torrents are still legal in Canada) than on the LP versions I own.

The best LP I have - the canadian (1st?) edition of the first Rolling Stones LP. Amazingly clean, well produced and sounding great.

The worst...too many to mention (tough to select, even if I only own about 2000.)

greatly reducing the higher frequencies

why would you do that? When I still ran my behringer deq 2496 for room correction, I had the RTA running all the time. There is on most CDs very little content compared to the total spectrum above 16kHz.


This post has been edited by kraut: Dec 2 2011, 06:42

[Porcus]

One of the few Lps that sounded better than CD - Kind of Blue....until the remastered and pitch corrected version came along.

With so many CD releases of KoB, there's gotta be one or more which are lesser than an LP. Now at least one CD remaster fell prey to the loudness war. Before that, some of the CDs used pre-emphasis, which could possibly lead to incorrect frequency response due to
- the studio's pre-emphasis circuit being slightly off mark (not uncommon!), and/or
- the consumer's de-emphasis cirquit being slightly off mark (absolutely not uncommon), and/or
- the consumer ripping to file and playing back without applying de-emphasis at all (who hasn't?), and/or
- the CD by mistake getting pre-emphasised signal, but not flagged in TOC/subchannel, and/or
- the CD getting the pre-emphasis flag, but by mistake the un-emph'ed signal.

(And it wouldn't even surprise me if some moron didn't know the difference between CD pre-emphasis and RIAA pre-emphasis and mistook the tapes.)