Its not vinyl
I have read 100’s of discussions on the subject of building a streaming digital option for audiophile systems. Everything from the internet connection to the streaming source and then the dac. In my reading through the posts the argument will quickly turn to its not analog, vinyl is better, on the anti streaming side and then on the pro streaming side posters will fed the argument with its almost as good as my phono stage, sounds better than analog. This will even hold true within the dac manufactures and dac owners who will refer to their dac sound as analog sounding or just like phono. I think this is most referenced in the R2R dac category. I started a discussion on the new Gustard R26 which is a discrete R2R ladder dac. Right away I was confronted with “why do you want to spend the money to replace your phono analog end that you already have and sounds great”? I Replied with the usual “phono does sound better, even a $30,000 dac will never beat analog and all the other analog vs digital talking points”. Then it hit me that we have been arguing this wrong all this time. The argument should be that the quest in putting together a top notch streaming digital setup is not a quest to beat analog or beat phono. The quest and objective is to achieve a “ less digital sound”. We all know that sharp, bright razor blades in my bleeding ears sterile digital sound, that will bring in-listener fatigue and quickly want you turning off the music. What I am reiterating here is that the quest the cost and the journey in digital is not to beat analog it is to beat “digital”.
Bingo. |
I agree mostly with @dancub. I am a music lover first my journey start at age 14 when I bought my first LP that was in 1967 (Disraeli Gears). Over the many years since I have accumulated over 3000 and still own the first. I got into hi-end audio in the 70s digital in the late 70s. So yes yes I have the sickness of always looking for better sound. In todays world I am not willing to make a judgment on which sounds better. I do believe that vinyl is a much more involving medium. For example different pressings sound different I love Holtz Planets and have several different performances on vinyl my favorite is Zubin Mehta with LA. I at one time had 5 different pressing of the same LP trying to find the best one. My point here is I am emotionally attached to my vinyl sources in a way that is impossible with digital you may own a FLAC and a MQA of the same performance but not two different FLACS. So do vinyl and digital sound different yes but part (not all) of the reasons some of us prefer Vinyl is it is more tactile and we are more emotionally involved with the selection of the medium. This is what I believe anyone else? |
@coltrane1 +1 you are so right. |
