Does Vinyl Really Have a Warm Sound?

Ask any record collector why they like vinyl and there are a number of possible responses - it being a tangible object, having gate fold sleeve art, and the warm sound may be mentioned. But does vinyl really have a warm sound? Here is a video from AP Mastering which seeks to explore the reality of the situation - and he believed there is no warm sound from records. Even if you have a cursory interest in vinyl, there's a lot to take away from this video. Here's what he has to say: 

Audiophiles will claim that vinyl sounds warmer, more analogue or "truer" etc but this is all nonsense and I demonstrate why in this video, other with explanations and straight up AB comparisons between stuff I have personally mastered and the respective vinyl releases. If something sounds different on vinyl vs the digital, it could be because of a whole number of things including but by no means limited to the playback stylus, preprocessing the cutting engineer applied for the cut or even in many cases the vinyl version is simply cut from a completely different mix.

In any case it is not possible that a vinyl cut from a digital master could sound "more true" than the digital master, since any deviation in sound quality from the digital master is by definition less true. I can totally understand how an old jazz recording could be more true listening to a vinyl that was cut in pristine quality from a perfectly archived original reel to reel master VS some 1980s weird digital copy from a rip of a bad pressing recorded with a vintage ADC. Sure. That stuff is actually not unheard of and I would obviously chose to listen to the vinyl repressing every time.

But in the majority of cases, vinyl doesn't improve the sound over the digital. What is the benefit of vinyl? It's simply the coolest music format of all time. Nothing can beat the experience of vinyl for people who love music. I love vinyl. Not because it magically improves the sound quality but because it is an awesome experience and you feel like you "have" the music. You own a physical copy of your favorite music. On Spotify you access almost everything and have nothing.

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