Final Fantasy XIII's soundtrack, now on vinyl

That's not how I remember it - any transfer to non-digital media is an opportunity to add mechanical "noise" to the recording, not counting the hiss/pops/scratching that often occurs with vinyl. The arguments I heard at the time were all related to the clarity of the audio on the disc, even though it (almost always at the time) came from an analog master that was mixed analog.

Isn't SACD dead?

And again, I'm not an audiophile so I probably shouldn't even be weighing in on the subject; I just think it's interesting the way there seems to be no objective standard for audio quality. Some people just like that vinyl "sound."

You've never heard of DVD Audio, I take it?

The format 'war' between SACD and DVDAudio was one of the lamest in history.

I remember I was at Best Buy waiting to return something. A man bought a Nelly audio DVD thinking it was a CD. He got to his car and stuck it in, didn't work. After realizing it was a DVD he tried to return it before having ever left the parking lot. Sad to say, Best Buy wouldn't take it back.

That's my only encounter with audio DVDs.

Back when CDs first came out, companies were in a rush to get their collections onto the new format. To do that as fast as possible, they simply took the existing masters and put those on CD. The result: CDs sounded worse than the equivalent record because the audio on them wasn't meant for the equipment it was being put through.

These days things are mastered for digital media. Among ignorant "audiophiles", the legacy of crappy CDs has lasted as the "fact" that vinyl is higher quality than digital. Which is completely wrong. Probably the best thing that can be said is that vinyl is different than digital. "Better" depends on the sound you want. If you want close to exact reproduction, digital is better. If you like the sound analog processing produced, vinyl is better.

And I for one would be surprised if vinyl recordings were always remastered, instead of just being a copy of the digital master. Some are remastered, sure, but all of them? More likely you're just buying an analog copy of what you'd get from iTunes.

See my original comment - I said they should "...put it on DVD."

Anyway, I'll say for the final time, not an audiophile so I didn't pay much attention then to the fate of SACD. I know enough to know that a lot of high-end audio comes out on DVD, however.

And yes, audio quality is highly subjective. For example, at a certain level of quality you can't simply state that one set of headphones is better than another. They just sound different. Different people will prefer one or the other.

But for the love of Jobs, replace the earbuds that came with your iPod!

No. The majority of hip hop albums gets a vinyl release.

Walk into any Best Buy and they'll have a dedicated vinyl section, along with players.

Not to mention used records are usually pretty cheap.

Yeah, I also love the atmosphere of used record stores if you can find one around

One of the best things about Southern Arizona is Bookmans. You can pretty well find anything there, and at a reasonable price.

@Bradwart

It's a small world. Bookmans is amazing.

Shame on you, Phil, for missing what - to everyone else - is an obvious joke.

Me, I'm waiting for the Wax Cylinder version.

That would be an awesome collector's edition bonus:

Dante's Inferno Collectors Edition featuring the Audio book version of the novel on 62 8-Track Tapes. It fits perfectly.

Sorry...

I thought we had gotten past this but,

/sarcasm

It is a Crosley CR40

Seriously? A region locked vinyl?

No, not seriously, it was a joke. Apparently I'm not very good at them.

Actually, I thought it was pretty good, for whatever that's worth.

My bad. Hard to realize through text. That's why the irony mark ؟ was invented.

Apparently it's not ok to joke about vinyl on Joystiq...

My first thought was "how the hell do you region lock an LP?"

Same here. Wasn't commenting to insult the guy. But there are some people out there stupid enough to think such a question.

No problem guys. But do try to ponder how one could region lock an LP...

In order to keep the needle from floating, the precise weight of a 100-yen coin must be taped to the end of the stylus. That's how.

I was thinking more along the lines of a GPS receiver included in with the LP, along with an explosive that would detonate upon the record leaving Japan's borders. That probably wouldn't be too popular, though; it would cost too much.

Comment system fail :(

I'm sorry, people still use CDs? All my music is digital.

howstuffworks fail.

CD output doesn't look like stairsteps. CD players use a reconstruction filter to smooth out the sampled signal. So CD's have no trouble representing a 10kHz tone. Vinyl, on the other hand, will always be prone to scratches, warping, and dirt.