In the course of researching my recent TBVO on Pharoah Sanders's album Karma, I tracked down two digital rips of the original vinyl release. However, I didn't mention them in the TBVO.

Why?

At times, I've used vinyl as a sort-of shadow comparison in order to see how the digital masterings compare to the original mastering, particularly if that original mastering was lauded. I did this for the TBVO on Steely Dan's Aja. I don't do this often, however, because I've found that two rips of the same vinyl mastering rarely match each other.

For example, here's a comparison of the two vinyl rips of "Colors" from Karma:

Are these discrepencies this due to different turntables? Different cartridges? Variations in the initial pressing process ("hot stampers," etc.)? Historical wear? I have no idea. But it's one of the many reasons why, as discussed in an earlier post, I'm a digital person. I just couldn't tolerate this kind of copy-to-copy variance. 

That said, in the comments on the Karma TBVO, @bbosler raises a good question: Are the two CDs of Karma as dynamic as the original album? With the caveat that noise on vinyl can make it falsely appear that a record has more dynamics than a digital release, it's clear that the CDs have very similar dynamics to the original vinyl.

Here's what the dynamics of the ‘89 CD (blue), ‘95 CD (red), and original vinyl (black) look like for the same track:

Both the '95 CD and vinyl appear to have a bit more compression than the '89 CD does. Because it was mastered louder, the '95 CD also includes some peak limiting, which you can see in some of the flat tops on the waveform. However, it's such mild peak limiting that it's hard to say that it's audible. It's certainly not significant enough to swamp the '95 CD's other positives. (It's also interesting that this vinyl rip is tilted significantly towards the left channel. I have no idea why that's the case. Neither the other vinyl rip nor the two CDs have that imbalance. The vagaries of vinyl strike again!)

Finally, how about some audio samples?! 

Here's the same two-minute section of "The Creator Has a Master Plan" from the '89 CD, '95 CD, and one of the vinyl rips. I picked this section because it's the one where I think the '89 CD's slightly brighter sound causes the shaker to crowd out the vocal.

1989 CD: 01 - The Creator Has a Master Plan Part I [1989, MCA, MCAD-39122] (clip).flac

1995 CD:01 - The Creator Has a Master Plan Part I [1995 Mound Edit] (89 Loudness) (clip).flac

Vinyl: A1 The Creator Has a Master Plan (Part I) (1989 CD Loudness) (clip).flac

Let me know what you hear/think in the comments!