Has digital come close to or beat up analog yet ?

Hey Mike, I'm an analog guy all the way (look at my system). Truth is though, bad phono, bad set up and / or bad cartridge and a high end digital and the roles can be reversed.

One of my best friends in my audio group has a CEC TL1X and an Audio Note 4X balanced. While his Aesthetix Io and Callisto are being worked on he is pinch hitting with VTL 5.5 (?) preamp.

Believe it or not, with that set up the digital is about even with the analog. When the Aesthetix stuff comes back the digital will improve greatly and the analog will walk away from it. I know this will be the outcome because until the Aesthetix was returned to be upgraded to latest, I heard this rig a hundred times.

Funny how much gear effects the end results.

i enjoy both formats and recent advances in my total system performance have likely moved digital a little closer to the vinyl in overall performance. seems that my GP rack has had a more positive effect on the emmlabs than the Lamm LP2 phono stage.

yesterday, for the first time in a couple of years, i got out the Furutech demagnatizer. then i pulled out two unopenned cases of Auric Illuminator. for the next few hours i painted the black felt marker on CD edges, cleaned CD's and then de-mag'd um. (i have an Audiodesk trimer on the way too).

i did this to about 15 of my most played CD's......listening to one while i 'did' another. this was a similar approach that i have taken with vinyl in the past.....kinda theraputic.

this process made a big performance difference.....more than i really expected to hear. the emmlabs already had as good digital performance as i have heard.....and this improved it even more (at least for redbook....i didn't tweak any sacd's). i look forward to what the Audiodesk can do.

my point is that when approaching digital there are ways to optimize it to get closer to what vinyl can do. resonance control, all kinds of disc tweaks, power cords, even CD-R methodologies......all are wringing a little more out of those silver discs.

digital has come 'closer'......but in most ways is not really close. when i put on one of my 'really good' Lps......game, set, match.....to vinyl.

Hi Joe,
I'm a dyed in the wool analog guy as well but recently I found a cd player that I believe will rock the digital world. It's a Chinese player called the Original Cd and this model is thier 5th year anniverary special called the Leonardo. It has changed everything I ever thought about digital. I haven't heard the Zandens or Meitner units but if they're better than this then it must be live. The most transparency I've heard from digital, you can get up and walk around the players in your sounstage it's that delineated. The biggest soundstage I've had in my system with width that envelopes around to the sides with real density to instruments not just sounds eminating from somewhere. The depth is better than I've been able to get with my analog. This is the first cd player I have owned that has been in the same league with my analog. I wont say it beats up on analog but we've got a fair fight for a change. By the way my analog rig is Micro Seiki 8000 tt, Air Tangent arm and I go between the Music Maker mm to a Cardas mc. The phono stage is something most people haven't heard of called the Electron Images which is another sleeper product. Also the retail on the cd player is $7000.00 and I know they just got a US distributer but I'm not sure who it is. Good luck Joe and I'm still enjoying my Scott tuner!
Rusty

i had a great experience with japanese red book CDs that do sound better than same album vinyl made in japan.

As I stated above, I think digital has evolved to a point where it's largely a matter of DIFFERENCES between the two formats. Sure, analog does some things better than digital, but digital also does some things better than analog. The best of the two formats are overall pretty equal in my book. In my time as an audiophile, I've either owned or heard the best turntables and digital playback devices out there, and I don't agree that, with a good LP, analog "walks away" from digital. A well recorded CD played back on a quality digital rig can compete with equivalent analog any day of the week. It's mostly a matter of what type of sonic presentation you value. I own an EMM Labs setup now, and I could've easily bought a SOTA turntable, but I didn't feel that the difference in presentation I'd get was worth the hassle. The EMM does everything (and more) that I need it to. Just my opinion.