@yermajesty:
"In my experience, digital did sound harsh . . . in the early days of CDs."
Yeah; my first Sony CDP in the early 90's sounded terribly metallic and shrill. I switched to a Denon, which was definitely better but nothing like my current Moon transport + Aqua DAC combo.
"And to me, vinyl has always sounded more natural than digital does."
Well, OK. Each to his/her own. You're certainly not alone in this regard. Vinyl does indeed sound different to me than CD but on good systems, I have no preference. I hear nothing that impels me to seize upon vinyl as a "benchmark". Perhaps I simply haven'y yet heard a sufficiently costly vinyl system but I have friends with systems costing at least 50K and to my ears their vinyl systems are not superior to my 25K digital system. Others would no doubt reach a different conclusion.
I'd agree that it's far easier to assemble a fatiguing-sounding digital system. When I decided to move from a CDP to a separate DAC and transport and began demo'ing DACs, I was astonished by the differences.
Some were so resolving that to me, all sense of the "forest" was lost, due to the severe overaccentuation of focus upon the "trees". I could not imagine how anyone could possibly enjoy such an "unnatural" presentation. Nevertheless, I found it helpful in my selection process to hear DACs on both ends of the spectrum.
This process led me to conclude that it's more important to know what one's preferences are as a listener, when going digital, as opposed to vinyl. And such knowledge can only come from experience, so perhaps it makes sense for beginners ought to start out with vinyl.
"In my experience, digital did sound harsh . . . in the early days of CDs."
Yeah; my first Sony CDP in the early 90's sounded terribly metallic and shrill. I switched to a Denon, which was definitely better but nothing like my current Moon transport + Aqua DAC combo.
"And to me, vinyl has always sounded more natural than digital does."
Well, OK. Each to his/her own. You're certainly not alone in this regard. Vinyl does indeed sound different to me than CD but on good systems, I have no preference. I hear nothing that impels me to seize upon vinyl as a "benchmark". Perhaps I simply haven'y yet heard a sufficiently costly vinyl system but I have friends with systems costing at least 50K and to my ears their vinyl systems are not superior to my 25K digital system. Others would no doubt reach a different conclusion.
I'd agree that it's far easier to assemble a fatiguing-sounding digital system. When I decided to move from a CDP to a separate DAC and transport and began demo'ing DACs, I was astonished by the differences.
Some were so resolving that to me, all sense of the "forest" was lost, due to the severe overaccentuation of focus upon the "trees". I could not imagine how anyone could possibly enjoy such an "unnatural" presentation. Nevertheless, I found it helpful in my selection process to hear DACs on both ends of the spectrum.
This process led me to conclude that it's more important to know what one's preferences are as a listener, when going digital, as opposed to vinyl. And such knowledge can only come from experience, so perhaps it makes sense for beginners ought to start out with vinyl.