So I’ve spent quite a bit of time listening to records and going back and forth between streaming, vinyl and cds. My opinion, the records truly sound the best to me with cd being second and streaming dead last.
I’ve been doing quite a bit of reading and there are many record lovers that claim that old original pressings sound better than the new ones so I also tested that theory. I purchased new at Walmart, Metallica Master of Puppets, Pink Floyd The Wall and KISS Destroyer. I also have NM copies of these albums in my collection that are original pressings.
The new pressing of Master sounds significantly better than the original with a huge boost in the dynamic range and an absolutely fantastic wide open soundstage with dead on imaging. The original sounds almost sterile compared to the new.
The Wall sounds so close to the original that I would be willing to bet even someone that knows the album second by second wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between the old and new pressing.
KISS was the most surprising to me, after listening to The Wall and Master I suspected maybe it to be actually better or in the very least comparable to the original but it isn’t even close. There is ZERO warmth and it literally sounds compressed.
And actually I’m grateful because I have the entire KISS catalog up to Lick it Up on original vinyl and I now feel I won’t need to rebuy any of those. Lol
Also have one other thing that I noted while listening, seems most of Led Zeppelin’s albums sound like shit, seriously, like shit. But oddly my even older DOORS albums sound fuller and better than any cd or streamed versions I’ve heard.
And I’m about half way through my Stones albums and they too sound simply amazing so I’m not sure what all the hype about Zeppelin vinyl is all about. Lol