Pink Floyd – Dark Side of the Moon 50th Anniversary

Last week I kind of stumbled into a record shop in Doesburg and scored this edition from the record from 2023. We have the 20th anniversary edition CD from 1992 but this vinyl version is of course a bit more luxurious with larger posters, lyrics and graphics overall. When you follow along with the lyrics in your hand the vinyl format is easier on the eyes and the larger format add visual flair to the cover design. Today we listened to the record and then decided to also listen to the CD directly afterwards to compare them. Both sound good with the vinyl giving the impression of a bit more warmth while the CD has more spacial resolution, resolving the individual instruments and sounds more clearly. The vinyl listening experience is a bit nostalgic but also slightly cumbersome because you need to be more careful while handling the larger disk. I will have to repeat this listening exercise a few times to come to a clearer verdict as some the perceived differences might also be due to imagination. Regardless, both CD and vinyl were very enjoyable to listen to and I don’t regret having spent roughly 30 euro on the vinyl even though we already had the CD. Since we bought a new record player and also a new DVD player a little over a year ago we are spending the occasional hour in the evening sitting on the couch only listening to a record, either vinyl or CD and doing nothing else. Emotionally both are different gateways to the music but the act of putting on a record and doing nothing else but listening to the music is a very effective way to spend some quality time with my wife while also disconnecting from the everyday hectic. A bit like what you can experience reading a book but with a different and more relaxing kind of focus. It is a big stop sign: stop multitasking and trying to do everything at once and spend 45 minutes only listening to the music. After such a listening session I often don’t feel the need anymore to finish a dozen things that evening.