Vinyl

[Rev. Rye]

Well, by design, it's a lot less susceptible to the Loudness War, since the dynamic range is pretty limited on vinyl (indeed, bass sounds that are too loud can actually bump needles out of place and high sounds that are too loud can actually destroy printing needles).





Then again, that's pretty much it for Vinyl's fidelity advantages on digital media, and even that's just there because some executives and engineers got obsessed with increasing volume at the expense of dynamic range (and a lot of it's because Noel Gallagher had "Wonderwall" brickwalled, possibly because the cocaine he was taking took its toll on his hearing; yes, that scene from Boogie Nights where Dirk complains about the bass on his song is actually accurate) and not anything inherent in either medium. Honestly, if anything, any sort of objective points the sound of analogue media has in its favour is actually because of how it distorts the actual sound.

Fun fact: guitarists still prefer the sound of tube amplifiers to their solid state equivalents, and the reason why (even if many couldn't explain why) is specifically because tube amps distort, and not only that, but especially accentuate distortion on the even-order harmonics (which are easier on the ears than their odd-order equivalents, which get more focus in solid state amps.)

Bear in mind, I'm a man who's kind of obsessed with finding out about how musicians and their instruments worked in the old days (to the point where I spent a long time trying to figure out exactly what kind of strings Robert Johnson used when he was still playing [Gibson Mona-Steel 12-56, BTW]), but even I have no illusions that vinyl actually has superior fidelity over digital methods.