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Another Analog v. Digital Thread? Not Really

I’ll try to keep this as short as possible. The premise is this: If the highest compliment that can be given to digital is that it sounds analog, why bother with digital? I would never have posted this question, but the other week something happened. After owning my Oppo 205 for about a year and a half, I decided to sell it given the fact I wasn’t that crazy about it and the selling prices were quite good, although I posted mine for significantly less than many others are asking. BTW - In the last month I owned the Oppo, I found it tremendously improved by placing a Vibrapod 3 under each foot.

So a nice young man comes by for an audition and he likes the Oppo very much and purchases it. He is into 4k and all that stuff, but also wants some better audio quality. So that’s that.

Before he leaves, he asks to hear a vinyl record played on my Basis turntable. It’s a nice table - 2001 with Vector arm and Transfiguration Orpheus. I would rate it as the low end of the high end. Well the guy’s jaw just dropped. After sitting for an hour listening to the Oppo, he says that everything is so much more "alive" was the word he used and he couldn’t get his mind around the fact that he was listening to the exact same system with everything the same except the source.

I was considering replacing the Oppo with something like a Cambridge transport and Orchid dac because I have to play my CDs, right? But then I starting thinking why I had to play CDs anymore at all. It’s not so crazy when you think about it. Many of us gave up vinyl when CDs started getting decent, so what’s so strange about going back in the other direction?

So I asked myself - if analog is so much better, why would I even bother listening to CDs anymore?
Convenience? Well, sure, but I don’t really consider putting on a record very inconvenient, so that’s not really it.
Many titles on CD that are not on vinyl? I think that argument may be largely dissipated nowdays. It seems that virtually anything I would remotely want to listen to is available on vinyl, either new or used. You have thousands of CDs? OK, but if they don’t sound as good as a record, why would you want to listen to them just because you have them. I know it seems like a waste, but it happens sometimes.

Let me just finish with this, so there’s no confusion. If you have some insane high-end digital rig that you believe outdoes analog, this is not directed to you. But, for anyone who believes the best compliment you can give to digital is that it sounds analog, why bother? Also, to you streamers out there, the freedom from having a large quantity of physical media in your home is definitely a good argument. We all collect too much stuff and it’s nice to get rid of some.

Hopefully, this will be taken in the spirit it’s given, but I doubt it.
Merry Christmas, really.
chayro
audiozenology
362 posts
 
But they were converted back to analog ... DAC in the cutting machine. This is the dirty little secret it appears no one wants to address in threads like this.


Why do LPs sound better when the recording was mastered digitally and never converted back to analog before making the CD? It's my understanding (which may be incorrect) that this is the way almost all music is produced now and for the past 15-20 years.


Can't say I know many younger audiophiles who have the view of the OP, which was really not a question at all, just begging the question fan-boy vinyl. Maybe it is just old ears or old brains that prefer vinyl?

I have been a tolerable musician at times in my life. I have heard very good vinyl system, and very good digital systems .... have them myself, and the best mastering is usually the one that wins for overall presentation, but when it comes to realism, a good digital system wins for me every time. Let's not forget, that almost no record, live recorded or not sounds much like what you hear live. Microphone positions, mixing, etc. are not remotely like what Joe audiophile in seat B13 is hearing.
bdp24's avatar
bdp24
9,931 posts
 

No serious music lover is going to choose one format over another. I have lots of LP’s that have yet to be released on CD, and lots of albums that are still available only on CD. You think I’m going to let the available format of any given recorded music determine if I will obtain and listen to it?!

Superior sound quality is a bonus, not the point. Some of my favorite music is available only in far-from-great recorded sound quality. Toscanini’s Beethoven Symphonies, Glenn Gould’s everything, Hank Williams’---the Hillbilly Shakespeare---songs of longing, Howlin’ Wolf’s primal screams, Little Richard’s and Johnny Burnette’s insanely great Rock ’n Roll masterpieces, Louis Jordan’s Jump Swing band, the list is very long.

You listen to your great sound, I’ll listen to my great music.

audiozenology
362 posts
 
+1
dentdog's avatar
dentdog
506 posts
 
Early eighties with a pair of MCIntosh 275s, JBL 250 Pyramids and a Theta tube pre, Win Strain Guage cart. CDs came out and I went for the format. No noise, how cool!   When my interest waned just figured I had outgrown sitting around listening to music. Semi permanent listener fatigue. Got rid of all the equipment, kept the albums.
2013 started reading on this forum and realized I had been TRICKED! Not going to be tricked again. OP, you got it right.
rbstehno
1,480 posts
 
IMO, If you want vinyl to sound better than a good digital setup (say comparing to a $7-$8k dac), you need to spend many times that in a vinyl setup to get better sound. The Oppo is not a good digital player so it doesn’t surprise me somebody preferred vinyl over the Oppo.
For almost 20 years, you had SACD that competed favorably against vinyl. Then you have DSD and now MQA, which to me sounds better than vinyl most of the time.
I’ve been into vinyl for over 40 years and most of the new music I listen to now (jazz like Fourplay, rock like dream theater, new age, and others) doesn’t come on vinyl and I really got tired listening to old music.

 I sold my $14,000 vinyl setup a couple of months ago because my digital setup with a very good dac surpassed vinyl for < 1/3 the cost if you also include the phono preamp, cleaning gear, etc.. Now I’m concentrating on selling all of my vinyl albums
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