i have never heard [via closed-back headphones] what some here refer to as a "black background" on any analog recording [tape or disc], there is always some background noise/medium noise or ambience. only in a large room did such become hard to hear, as the room sound would obscure such subtleties. large rooms have a background noise of their own due to structure born noise as well as air current noise working on one another. don't believe me, then whip out the decibel meter, it will tell the tale. OTOH, just about all my digital recordings have [at least between the tracks] a true black background of totally negligible hiss ][mostly from the electronics]. all my digital recordings have, for want of a better word, a slight "zing" in the extreme trebles [top of the top octave], presumably this is due to the psychoacoustic action of the steep Nyquist filters used. on upsampling digital players [i.e., ones that multiply 44.k into 88.2k or higher] i don't hear this effect. with the aforementioned "zing" out of the way, the only difference i hear is [with digital masters] is the absence of print-through, wow & flutter, and modulation noise common with analog master tapes, and of course no [disc] surface noise. for most folks, those things add a subtle "warmth" to the analog sound, but to me [i can discern 1/8th-of-a-tone variations, a side-effect of having perfect pitch] they are audible and represent a sour coloration that i'd rather not have in my music playback. just listen to the decay of sustained piano notes or high-pitched chimes, you'll hear what i mean. digital to me is just more "solid" for want of a better term.
