When is digital going to get the soul of music?

I haven't read this whole thread, so forgive me if this has already been said...but I believe the soul of the music is in the performance, not in the playback format...even listening to an old Robert Johnson recording on AM radio sounds soulful to me... ;-)

Yes. Philnyc. I listen to his recording in my car and agree that Robert Johnson has the soul thing down no matter what you listen to him on.

It turns out that Aplhifi lives less than one mile from me, and I will be bringing over the Oritek X-1's and X-2's for an audition on Saturday.

I'm a little late in joining this discussion but I think what Onhwy61 said about distortion is absolutely correct. Call it what it is. Tube equipment adds it and I suspect a piece of equipment could be designed that would emulate tape saturation and/or vinyl compression even more accurately. Perhaps a business opportunity exists here. This would not compensate for bad recording technique or bad pressings but in the case of a good CD recording, would provide what vinyl lovers would call "magic".

I can remember the digitally recorded vinyl records from the late 70's, early 80's. They seemed unbelievably good. I also have a compilation CD of Asian music where I swear that one of the tracks came from vinyl. It has the sound of vinyl complete with the ticks and the sense of space and immersion is undeniable. I will agree that vinyl does offer a very pleasant listening experience but I would dispute the assertion that digital is an inferior medium.