Here's why you might perceive a record to sound better than a cd:
1. Vinyl introduces harmonic distortion into the audio signal. From a scientific standpoint, this means vinyl has worse fidelity than digital audio. But some people like the distortion, as it makes music sound "warmer."
2. In the mid 90s, audio engineers began mastering music louder. In order to maximize the perceived loudness, they use an effect called dynamic compression, which reduces the dynamic range of the recording (the difference between louds and softs). This trend was not present during the heyday of vinyl. As a result, many CD versions of old records sound worse than the original vinyl. But this has nothing to do with audio formats--just poor mastering.
1. Vinyl introduces harmonic distortion into the audio signal. From a scientific standpoint, this means vinyl has worse fidelity than digital audio. But some people like the distortion, as it makes music sound "warmer."
2. In the mid 90s, audio engineers began mastering music louder. In order to maximize the perceived loudness, they use an effect called dynamic compression, which reduces the dynamic range of the recording (the difference between louds and softs). This trend was not present during the heyday of vinyl. As a result, many CD versions of old records sound worse than the original vinyl. But this has nothing to do with audio formats--just poor mastering.