Analog vs. digital

Done with the discussion of measurements vs sensory perception.

Neither of us build commercially, I'm a curious diy, have been long building my own general purpose computers, thought I'd give music server computer a try. Bang for the buck is off the charts with diy music servers, commercial servers all use off the shelf motherboards with optimized OS, really not much more than that to most of them. They don't render well, lucky if they have nice power supply. My present server is combo off the shelf/diy, I don't waste effort on rendering with it, so impact on sound quality much less than the servers doing rendering, the thing is vast majority of off the shelf servers pay no attention to rendering, yet they charge like they're doing mass amounts of R&D. These guys likely have the greatest profit margins in audio, along with the cable guys. So, you and I may have something in common when it comes to marketing hype. Difference is I don't observe market hype with at least some of the white papers I've read, in these cases the particular person writing the paper doesn't have a product to sell using the technical knowledge they're expanding on.

“Why in High End audio do differences of preference and taste have to result in potential conflict? …..Analogue for you, digital for me. Both are splendid options.”
@charles1dad

Well said, my sentiments exactly!

@sns Done with the discussion of measurements vs sensory perception.

Agreed!
This poor dead horse has been beaten countless times. Dismissing what you hear with an audio component is akin to buying video products and paying no heed to what you see on the screen. Irrational behavior.

Charles

@ghdprentice , Come on! You know that was staged:-)

It is an odd set of circumstances. For an absolute fact, digital reproduction has a much better signal to noise level and distortion that is at least an order of magnitude if not two less than analog. I have at least 100 albums in both analog and digital form and I would say that it is an even split as to which I prefer. However I can tell instantly which program source I am listening to. As a generalization what I have noticed is that analog sources have a heightened ambience in relation to digital which makes the soundstage seem deeper as if more echo was added to the master. I can hear why people like this even though it is artificial. 

When asked I will tell people who have not started an LP collection not to bother with analog. It is expensive and a PITA. They are better off putting their money into digital equipment and music. Those of us with large collections have to make the most of it and SOTA analog reproduction is very seductive. In my system that  amounts to $35,000 in analog equipment alone! 

Digital is sooo superior!

Analog just sounds better.