This graph is called a sound wave, and it shows how compressed the air is at a given point over time. You have likely seen sound visualized as a graph with many peaks and valleys. So what’s the deal with the vinyl phenomenon? Is it really possible that records just inherently make a fuller sound? To have any hope of answering these questions, we have to start with something more basic: What is sound and how do we hear it?Īll sounds are just vibrations in the air. Being a scientific-minded person, I’m not exactly swayed by one data point, but the experience did pique my curiosity. I was skeptical of the claim that vinyl sounded better, so I was surprised to be hearing a difference. It sounded much deeper and fuller, like there were new noises in it. But when the cacophony at the end of “A Day in the Life” came on, it was not the one I had heard before. I had dutifully met the college student stereotype of blasting The Beatles on a regular basis, so I had heard those songs a hundred times. I distinctly remember playing The Beatles’ Sgt. The collection itself was not particularly exciting, but the possibility of listening to the exact records she had played as a teenager felt like some sort of time travel. I played my part in boosting record player sales after finding my mom’s old record collection in my parents’ house. Some of the credit probably goes to the hipster trend toward retro everything, but music lovers often claim records just sound better than digital music. Record players have made a comeback over the past decade.

Analog vs digital waveform