Vinyl Vs CDs/MP3s

After getting a record player, I have been enjoying listening to a lot of my favorite music in its original format (grew up listening to a lot of classic rock.) Now, I do notice an improvement in sound of those albums in vinyl verses their CD/MP3 counterpart. This is because the sound was compressed to be able to be put on CD and even more so for MP3s.

But, with record players coming back into fashion and with more and more current artists releasing their music on vinyl in addition to CD's and MP3s, that begs me to ask something. Let's say that there's a new album by a band coming out this year, one of the options to buy it in addition to downloading it off Itunes is also to buy it on vinyl. In today's world with both of those being options would the vinyl have better sound than the MP3? Or would the two typically have the same sound quality?

MP3s suck. They take all the discrete information from the high and low frequencies and compress it, mashing it together.

I have always hated their sound---but they have become the norm. Most people either can't tell the difference or don't care. But I think it sounds like the music is fed through a tin can.

I usually listen to digital WAV or AIFF files, uncompressed, with either 44.1 khz or 48 khz, 16bit, stereo. 44.1 is CD quality. 48 is higher.

I still love the robust sound of an analog LP, scratches, pops, and all. While I think CD quality is an improvement in treble and mid-tone separation, the lower frequencies have usually sounded better to me on an old-fashioned record.

I can definitely understand why some people prefer it.

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Fantod,

I don't know if you really need a high end record player to notice the difference in sound. As I stated earlier, I grew up listening to a lot of classic rock. Music that was originally made for vinyl. For example, my favorite band is The Who and my favorite album of theirs is Tommy. Now, When I discovered the LP as part of my parent's old record collection and played it, I was able to, right off the bat hear a difference in sound quality from the CD/MP3 version of it.

Also, I know that vinyl has better sound quality at least when talking about older records that were originally released that way and then converted over to CDs and MP3s. But, what about current albums. There's a comeback in the world of vinyl and many artists who are coming out with new albums offer vinyl as an option. For example, one of my favorite bands, Guster, has their new album coming out on Tuesday. Would I notice a better quality in sound if I got it on vinyl verses MP3? My thought/concern was that classic rock albums were done in an analog recording format and put on an analog way of playing music. Whereas any current albums are mostly recorded digitally and released in a digital format as well. Does that really not matter though and if I got the new Guster album in vinyl, would it sound better than it's mp3 counterpart?