How much do you need to spend to get digital to rival analog?

@atdavid

You only answered a very small portion of the question I asked and effectively ignored the most significant part of it.

No offense mikelavigne...

Vs.

Serious question for everyone.

Blame yourself or bug @mikelavigne if your question wasn’t answered.

As well, are you implying it would be impossible to build an analog limiter that soft-clips like magnetic tape and put that in the circuit before the A/D? (not that that would have been needed in the last 20 ish years with 24 bit A/D with 20+ bits effective for studio equipment)

Analog consoles already soft clip. They won’t add the saturation of reel-to-reel. You are incorrect about the lack of need with 24 bit gear. There are many professional recording engineers that push the levels, and digitally clip the signal during recording. Even worshipped mastering engineer, Steve Hoffman, is guilty of digital clipping in his masters.

Anyone claiming that digital is worse than analog because of "real world dynamics" is misguided. These individuals likely enjoy the saturation of "tape" and the compression added, vs. the higher audible digital distortion from higher signal levels, during dynamic passages. With the right processing, that is no longer an issue with digital. The manufacturers just haven’t figured it out, no matter how much their gear costs ", and that is where we are now."

Anyone claiming that digital is worse than analog because of "real world dynamics" is misguided.

 
please cite examples so we can all listen and comment. or come over to my room, bring your files and dac, and we can both listen and see where it goes.

or is this just more theory?

^^^^^

Anyone claiming that digital is worse than analog because of "real world dynamics" is misguided. These individuals likely enjoy the saturation of "tape" and the compression added, vs. the higher audible digital distortion from higher signal levels, during dynamic passages. With the right processing, that is no longer an issue with digital. The manufacturers just haven’t figured it out, no matter how much their gear costs ", and that is where we are now."

I own 15 IPS tape from Ultra Analogue Recordings. I also own the CD and Digital File versions. I listened in my room with Roger Ginsley the Canadian rep for Studer and the engineer behind the recordings. The digital was  right there with the Tape. Done right Digital can do it. No they did not do vinyl so I can’t say.
Holly Cole music just as an example going by memory is the same way in my space. She is Spooky right there in the room

@tzh21y

zh21y
I am being totally serious here. Out of everyone in my audiophile circle, only 2 listen do serious critical listening to digital. I am thinking it would probably cost at least 30K. Thats a lot of scratch for digital.

All I will say.
Blessed is the audiophile that finds audio nirvana on a budget, and then just gets to enjoy music once and for all. The Gear itself is no longer the focus. I am speaking of the Music Lover...... not the Audiophile, Gear Collector and or Trophy Getter.

If it really is about the music......
The Music Lover hears beyond the engineering mistakes. Its about the music. The format does not matter anymore.

*************************************

I am in my 50’s now and have been at this audio hobby "consciously" as a known "hobby" since I was probably 10 and had my first part time job to earn coin. All remaining "old school" audiophiles in my circle, have been around the block a few times with Audiophilia. They all recognize at this point that Audio Nirvana is achieved not by throwing money at new gear but by fine tuning one’s own space and existing gear. Once one understands for each of their unique spaces, what causes things to sound the way they are...once this is understood.... no one I know is willing anymore, to drop big bucks on another piece of gear, just for the sake of changing things out. A change in direction - i.e. ESL versus Box Speakers is another matter.

I own 15 IPS tape from Ultra Analogue Recordings. I also own the CD and Digital File versions. I listened in my room with Roger Ginsley the Canadian rep for Studer and the engineer behind the recordings. The digital was right there with the Tape. Done right Digital can do it. No they did not do vinyl so I can’t say.

can you tell us which specific recording this is?

Raul, somehow you have managed to miss, or ignore, the point I was making. Moreover, you are also being very selective and “political” with your disagreements.

No common sense? C’mon now, language barrier or not you must know that this will be a very provocative characterization. I will ignore it as it goes precisely to the point I was making and which seems to elude you.

The bias I referred to is your bias to what can supposedly be “proven” by way of measurements and by your chosen “facts”; by your definition of “common sense”. Whether the subject of the bias is digital or not was not really the point. With respect, you need to understand more about the nature of that which you often use as a “calling card” of sorts. The quality of Art is not determined by technical matters or measurements of such. In fact, the reliance on those criteria to determine the quality of Art is antithetical to the very nature of Art and to its appreciation.

Frankly, I’m not quite sure why you are arguing any of the points being made. You acknowledge that both technologies can sound good and that both can be enjoyable. I said so as well. You point out that both sound different in fundamentally different ways. Ditto. If they both sound different in fundamentally different ways then they can’t both sound equally close to the sound of live music. Right? They each have differences and each deviates from the sound of real music in different ways. For me, the best analog sounds closer in the ways that matter most to me. For you, apparently digital does. So what, precisely, is the problem?

Raul, for me it is not a question of what I “like” for the sake of liking it. I like what like in recorded sound because more than fifty years around the sound of live music for hours each and every day tells me which technology, when well implemented, gets closer to that sound in the ways that matter most to me. You then suggest I ignore what my ears tell me and to instead “SEE the reality”.....right.  

Btw, I know it pains you have a dialogue with someone with so little common sense, but why do you really no longer want to have a dialogue about this with lowly me? Could it be that the emperor’s wardrobe is not quite as extensive as is claimed?
Regards.