Why no interest in reel to reel if you're looking for the ultimate sound?

Vinyl  /   High Quality Analog Tape  / High-Res digital

Which of these sounds least like the other two?

Vinyl.  High-Res digital and high quality analog tape sound similar. Vinyl does not sound like analog tape.

" Vinyl does not sound like analog tape."
that statement is very funny. I would be inclined to think the same with an inexpensive phono stage but not with a decent stage.

if you compare the 45 rpm pressings to the 15 ips tape they are much closer than a hi rez down load. 
I have done several transfers of 15 ips to 24/192. the transfers sound very good, but a quick comparison shows its a copy .

Without a whole lotta tweaking CDs can’t really compete with much. The three basic necessities are mechanical isolation - isolate the player, isolate everything! - stiffening and damping of the disc Itself and first and foremost: elimination of the scattered background laser light. Then you’d have a fighting chance. As fate would have it I sell the only comprehensive solution to the scattered light problem and have The Mystery Tweak for problem no. 2 but can’t reveal it; otherwise it wouldn’t be a mystery, would it? Even cassettes have a great many variables, it’s never easy!

One final thought: there are no absolutes. Everything is relative - A. Einstein

Not worth the hassle. Not over paying for a bulky, clunky, outdated format. Vinyl has good artwork and is sturdy at least. This is niche stuff that people with too much time and disposable income can indulge in. Rest of us have other priorities.

Since this topic was brought up in a thread that had nothing to do with CDs, perhaps the author of this post, @geoffkait  can tell us how a low cost CD player, in a car, travelling on the roads of Detroit (notorious for bad roads), can play, without skips, drop-outs, and other irregularities one would expect if the data could not be corrected by the error correction and had to be interpolated?  Even the most highly sound isolated car has vibration far beyond the home environment, not to mention the sound levels reaching the mechanism?  I wonder if anyone else could weigh in on the miraculous technology that allowed such wonder in the early 90s?

geoffkait23,308 posts06-18-2020 10:40amWithout a whole lotta tweaking CDs can’t really compete with much. The three basic necessities are mechanical isolation - isolate the player, isolate everything! - stiffening and damping of the disc Itself and first and foremost: elimination of the scattered background laser light. Then you’d have a fighting chance. As fate would have it I sell the only comprehensive solution to the scattered light problem and have The Mystery Tweak for problem no. 2 but can’t reveal it; otherwise it wouldn’t be a mystery, would it? Even cassettes have a great many variables, it’s never easy!