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Digital vs Analog - A supposition...

As has been the truth since the advent of digital storage and playback of music, there are those who claim one is better than the other and also quite a few claiming the opposite.

Please allow me to offer a bit of an explanation. Keep in mind, this explanation does not purport to be a scientifically-based one. Rather it is is simply a thought that popped into my head a few nights ago during one of my never-ending basttles with insomnia.

I'm thinking that the vinyl junkies may staunchly defend their method of playback simply because it is what they were weaned on and lived with throughout their formative years. Vinyl sounds more "natural" because its playback characteristics are what they heard from the very beginning and therefore it is their standard of playback quality.

They are attuned to vinyl's various (and well-documented) defects and those defects are part of what comprises the "sound" of vinyl and perfect playback. Therefore, the absence of any of these defects would constitute a deficiency of any competing technology.

Discuss amongst yourselves....

-RW-
rlwainwright
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ncarv
983 posts
 
Sorry . . . disagree. Every person, audiophile or not, who has come to my home and listened to both has preferred vinyl, including those who only listen to, and swear by, digital. This also includes younger people who have never heard vinyl before.

That said, I enjoy listening to all formats. I even like to listen to MP3 through my Squeezebox and DAC, and hi-rez digital downloads are very nice sources and very convenient, but vinyl is far and away, IMHO, the more pleasurable format.
ivan_nosnibor's avatar
ivan_nosnibor
1,052 posts
 
I tend to be of the opinion that analog (of sufficient quality) tends to be at least as good as or better than digital as a rule. HOWEVER, I've come to the conclusion over the years that vinyl (noiseless though it indeed may be under proper circumstances) actually has a somewhat 'colored' sound to it. If you ask me, the ideal format sound quality-wise is likely some sort of high-end reel-to-reel, very expensive and of limited practicality for anyone other than a recording studio perhaps, but probably the best there is...but, short of that, finding more ways for me to make the digital I have sound as good as analog is where I find it's at these days, for my own money.
jmcgrogan2's avatar
jmcgrogan2
6,346 posts
 
Well there certainly is one supposition. Another may be that when digital junkies were guaranteed "perfect sound forever" they just blindly believed it. No harm, the world needs sheep too.
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