Digital versus Vinyl - Grinnell College Review

I have a midrange SACD player, an Esoteric K-05, and I find myself putting on a cd to listen to while I do something else and then being drawn to my listening chair and listening for a couple of hours regularly.

If someone believes that all vinyl systems sound better than digital or that all digital systems sound better than vinyl, they are badly mistaken. 

Some people prefer vinyl and that's great.  Enjoy yourself.  But understand that unless you're at the state of the art, there are a lot of digital systems out there that sound better than your vinyl system and vice versa.

As far as convenience goes, there's no question that digital is much less work.  But that's not the only reason that people listen to it.  Digital can sound great.  And many vinyl people talk about liking vinyl because of the smell of the vinyl, the tweaking, the album artwork, etc.  Things that have nothing to do with sound.

So why can't we just say that both formats can sound great or not so great and not have to say that our preference is the best?

Well said Tomcy6. when these debates come up, yes there is a tendency for vinylphiles to kind of stand on a soap box and proclaim black and white that vinyl is superior to digital. But what is often missed, beside considering how high end and musical sounding the digital equipment is, are system synergy & the recording medium itself.

You can have a very good vinyl deck, with a very average cartridge, phono stage and/or cables, with average to poor system synergy. Compare that to a well sorted and balanced system with a high end cd player playing discs like XRCD24's, DXD or SHM Platinum and I bet more than one eyebrow would be raised.

There can be great sounding analogue systems & great sounding analogue-like digital systems with proper attention to the system, player/deck and recording medium.