I think Albert makes a very important point, that I have thought may have a lot to do with the bland sound we hear from CDs and that is that they are "dumbed" down in the process of getting from the master to the final pressed version we buy.
I have experienced this myself, by making my own recordings of live music with a modest recording setup and transfering them to CD. It seems impossible that they would compete with high dollar recording budgets but they do. There is a life there that is often missing with produced CDs. They aren't perfect in all ways, but I generally prefer the sound of my own live recordings to most CDs that I own. My theory on this is the fact that I'm listening to the master not the copy
I am fairly new to analog playback, but I think it is clearly better when you look at sound quality only. I can connect with music on a higher level with viny. The convenience factor is way down with analog, and we live in a convenience driven world, that is why digital wins hands down for most.
I have experienced this myself, by making my own recordings of live music with a modest recording setup and transfering them to CD. It seems impossible that they would compete with high dollar recording budgets but they do. There is a life there that is often missing with produced CDs. They aren't perfect in all ways, but I generally prefer the sound of my own live recordings to most CDs that I own. My theory on this is the fact that I'm listening to the master not the copy
I am fairly new to analog playback, but I think it is clearly better when you look at sound quality only. I can connect with music on a higher level with viny. The convenience factor is way down with analog, and we live in a convenience driven world, that is why digital wins hands down for most.