Alright Tim, I bite: by what criteria does Vinyl sound better than SACD or even CD? Are you sure that the gestures and faces you made when putting on an LP vs CD/SACD had nothing to do with your audience's reaction?
Not trying to be ****y, just searching for insights.
Ralph, no offence taken or anything. Sorry I couldn't answer specifically earlier, it was a busy week. It just so happens that we had some folks over last night, so I took some notes anticipating finding some forum time today.
One of the guys was a former session musician in L.A., but not a high-fi buff at all. The other was one of my local audio friends with a decent system, but straight RedBook CD only. So here's some of the specific differences based on what we were listening to last night:
Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong - "Ella and Louis"
CD was a plain vanilla Verve, SACD also a Verve, LP is a Mobile Fidelity.
All three sounded good, but the SACD was noticibly smoother, with more resolution than the SACD. On the first track "Can't We Be Friends" about two thirds into the song Louis has a trumpet solo that is utterly sublime - very simple lines of single notes. On the vinyl version this solo sounds like a literal sphere of pressurized air eminating clearly from the bell of the instrument and expanding into the space of the room. On the other formats this still sounds great, but it does not give the image of a real instrument in a real space. This same sense of "bloom" is present later in the trumpet solo on "The Evening Breeze". Still further on there is a wonderful take on "Cheek to Cheek" that features a great drum section. On the RedBook CD this sounds very muddy and "tizzy" (I'm sure that's not a word - but this ain't scrabble so don't challenge it). On the SACD this selection comes across with a lot more detail and is receeded further back in the soundtage - that is to say, better localized. This localization is even further defined on the LP, but also adds a much better sense of hearing the head of the drum stick riding on the cymbals, and when the tom-toms are struck there is a much more vivid picture of a skin stretched tightly across the surface of the drum. Additionally, there is a LOT more decay in the instrument. The thing that freaked the guys out when I mentioned it to them is that the LP is in MONO!
Pink Floyd - "Dark Side of the Moon"
CD is a Mobile Fidelity "Gold", SACD is the Capital released last year, LP is an original Mobile Fidelity UHQR.
Every now and again I think of some recordings as tired old warhorses, but I'll tell you what, we immensely enjoyed listening to this classic! This one was pretty tight. The MoFi RBCD is VERY well done, and frankly we all agreed that (at least in 2 channel) it was a toss up between it and the SACD. The LP though was everyone's favorite. Maybe because we all grew up listening to this on vinyl and thinking about scoring pot or the sweet girl down the street, but hands down, the UHQR was the winner. Deeper, more tunefull bass, MUCH bigger soundstage (it almost seemed like multichannel durring "On the Run"), and an incredible sense of that decay I mentioned above - specifically at the beginning of "Time" where the clocks all go off. There is a large chime that strikes in the left channel that ends very abruptly on the CD and a bit less so on the SACD. On the vinyl version it is still very clearly reverberating when the guitar line starts at the beginning of the track, it's audible a good 4-5 seconds longer than on the others.
Amiee Mann - "Lost in Space"
CD is standard issue, SACD is the Mobile Fidelity, as is the LP
I kind of have a thing for Amiee Mann, and I can't decide if this is my favorite album by her or "Bachelor No. 2" (the shot of Amiee on the back cover of "Bachelor" would have fed my teenage dreams for many years - still does). The CD is a masterpiece in my mind artistically, but falls well short of the SACD and LP sonically - although you can tell that it was well recorded, surely contributing to the great sound of both the SACD and LP. Here the SACD and LP were much closer to one another, but both of them trounced the RBCD. On the opening cut "Humpty Dumpty" there is a much greater sense of space around the instruments, specifically the electric guitar that drives the pace of the song in a really loping sort of way that foreshadows the teeter toddering image of "Humpty" rocking back and forth on the wall prior to the inevitable fall - a striking musical metaphore. This sense of space reappears in the track "High on Sunday 51", where the slide guitar in the background literally propels the song forward on the SACD, and becomes positively menacing on the LP. It's VERY apparent that these are steel strings, and you even get a sense of the wire wound around the strings core and an almost tactile sense of movement up and down the strings that simply isn't present in the other two formats. On the cut "Pavlov's Bell" there is a constant acoustic guitar pattern behind the sweeps of electric guitar in the solo that is very much burried in the CD, but very disctinguishable in the SACD and LP (pretty much a tie here). Another track that is a standout is "Today's the Day". On this track there is a bridge that features only Amiees voice and a strummed acoustic guitar to great effect. Only on the LP version is it very obvious by comparison that the guitar is a 12 string (confirmed in the liner notes). The last track "It's Not" is one of those songs that brings tears to my eyes - it is stunning in it's lyrical quality:
I keep going round in the same old circuit
A wire travels down to a vacant lot
Where something I can't see interrupts the current
And shrinks the picture down to a tiny dot
And from behind the screen, it can look so perfect
But it's not
In the last two lines Amiee's voice winds down similar to the visual image in the fourth line, but it's only on the LP that you get a feel for the tremendous sweeping vibrato that she holds on the last note and the almost visceral fragility of the line (must pause, I'm a bit viklempt - pick a topic and discuss amongst yourselves).
Later in the song there is a wonderful instrumental bridge with strings that is almost shrugged off in the CD version, but that actually grows in scale on the SACD and LP, to the point where you realize that she's got a small orchestra backing her up. In both the SACD and LP you can clearly delineate a plucked harp over the top of the strings, as well as a few very effective notes from a french horn. Again, the LP gets a slight nod here for that sense of bloom as the notes expand spherically from the bell of the instrument. Additionally, the soundstage on the LP is slightly wider and deeper than the SACD.
Whew...I don't know if that helps explain what I'm hearing or not Ralph, but I'm ready to go back and listen to that Amiee Mann LP again right now! FWIW, the musician guy who isn't really and audio guy is now planning to attend the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest with me, and says he's ready to buy into some vinyl!
