: Infamously mastered during the "loudness wars," giving it a gritty, highly compressed sound.
On the third night, the melody led him to a record store that had no business being on that block. Its neon sign read "VINYL DREAMS" in cursive the color of old blood. Inside, dust motes hung like timid witnesses. The owner, a woman with hair the shade of coffee grounds, slid a sleeve across the counter without looking up. "You looking for something specific?" she asked anyway.
Because the original CD was so poorly mastered, fans began recording vinyl copies of Californication and converting them to 320 kbps MP3s. These "vinyl rips" are often considered the holy grail. The vinyl master had to be cut with less digital limiting to prevent the needle from jumping out of the groove. Consequently, a vinyl rip at 320 kbps sounds warmer, more dynamic, and infinitely more pleasant than the CD.
