When is digital going to get the soul of music?

...unless digital is maybe the thing that creates a lot of the unrest in the world maybe? You, know, the "digital edge"?

They say the lord works in strange ways, after all.

On the otherhand, unrest has been around since way before digital, so maaybe not.

With the advent of double DSD recordings and native DSD DACs, I think we will be surprised. I now have a few sacds done on my harddrive as DSD files. I don't yet have a native DSD DAC, however, but these are far superior to the sacds played on universal players or HD 192/24 files.

There is, however, a characteristic difference between digital and vinyl. One is a pain to use, especially for albums redone to 45 rpm. The other you can sit and use your Ipad to control everything, mute it, go back to one cut, etc.

...when people start listening with an open mind!

Of course, you could always argue, and successfully IMO, that the problem with digital does not lie with either the recording technology or the media (optical discs) but with the playback system. Has anyone noticed that stock off the shelf CDs for the most part tend to sound like papier mâché? And that they sound like the dynamics are compressed, that information appears to be missing, and they sound rather irritating, you know, what with all the distortion, lack of fully developed bass and wiry, rolled off high frequencies.

Oddly enough Geoff, no.... I have not noticed any obvious band-pass filter limitations on most of my very standard CD pressings, nor an overall lack of dynamics in the music. Invariably, occasional slight treble distortions appear to be originating from places other than my vintage Esoteric X-01 CD player.

Guido