A very good ENGINEERING explanation of why analog can not be as good as digital..

I’m always a little surprised to almost never encounter any reference to the top (or really any other) audio reviewers when sound quality is discussed in AG forums. Valin (perhaps the most respected) of Ab Sound has said digital can sound excellent but is no match for analog as far as low-level information is concerned in numerous areas.

john,

From my post on page 2, here is what Valin said about the MSB Reference DAC and Transport in this month’s TAS. Any gap that vinyl has over digital is becoming very narrow and in the real world where we don’t listen to state of the art systems, it’s a matter of preference and skill in assembling a system to play one or both formats. You and everyone else are free to prefer vinyl without being constantly reminded that it's an inferior format. I just wish you would grant the same consideration to people who prefer digital.

Valin:

"As I just said it wasn’t as if Connick and Marsalis had developed the body and bloom of an LP on voice and sax. And yet, in spite of this, the MSB gear reproduced both singer and sax with such supernaturally lifelike immediacy, resolution of performance detail, neutrality of tone color and dynamic range that they sounded ’there’ enough to astonish me."

"To be frank, when it comes to digital sources, I ain’t no Robert Harley. Still, I know real when I hear it, and with the Reference DAC/Transport I heard it to an extent I wouldn’t have thought possible the day before this MSB gear arrived - and I heard it on CD, SACD, high-res streaming, and (par excellence) MQA streaming."

why is it always about what sounds better, both have their merits both can engage the listener. For those that have no vinyl then yeah digital makes more sense but for those of us who have collected vinyl records for decades then vinyl makes sense as well. I like both and use both depending on what format I have the music I want to listen to on, or maybe convivence like casual listening. I also, gasp, listen to MPR radio that stuff over the air waves I know shocking. why do we have to have two camps lets all listen together can you Imagine (pun intended).

Music isn’t about logic.  It is a feeling transmitted to you.  So until an engineer can measure the ‘feeling’ I get, it’s just talk, imo. 

Exactly and I "feel" that CDs sound way better than vinyl :-)

tomcy6 quotes Valin saying positive things about digital & so he does while simultaneously criticizing the same HW for major soundstaging issues that analog does not have, again proclaiming it is overall the better more truthful medium.
Someone else asks basically, why we cannot just enjoy the medium w/o comparing. We can & cannot simultaneously as our hobby has that as intrinsic. Like anything else - it’s a balance that must be struck. An eternally sought after sweet spot between both. Much as must be done everywhere else in life.
stl brings up a really slippery point that too many hide behind (I would not include him in this & view it as intriguingly though provoking).

What sounds good? What sounds best?
What’s the best way to reproduce music?
It’s all a matter of opinion and we’re all entitled to our opinions.

I’ve given this some thought over the years & just as there are guidelines & widespread agreement as to what makes great paintings great (in terms of composition, colour, texture, grace, spirit & much else conveyed among much else still) so too is it similar with audio. Subjectivity is not an excuse to let emotions run roughshod over the intuition. One is free to like the illustrations on hallmark cards - even preferring it to say, Rembrandt, Michelangelo & Van Gogh, but insisting others share your tastes is distinctly problematic. There are standards & while departing from them is an inevitability in audio - only to a degree. Valin often writes about the 3 types of listeners but always insists that anyone with any integrity in any type respects the preference of the others as long as it adheres to some kind of agreed-upon truthfulness.