When is digital going to get the soul of music?

I agree with your comments, except I wouldn't object to $30.00 or even $50.00 for a perfect digital copy of the master file.

Unfortunately, the "master tapes" are not always that great. Lets face it, you can only use up so much studio time and session musicians or a band may have just a week with the studio rented (often at night if they can't afford it). With classical it is even worse - you may only have a couple of days to get everything you need and live is the absolute worst - you maybe get as much as three inadequate recordings in a venue to work with.

The reality is that if the band is serious about audiophile quality sound then you generally get it - INXS, Pink Floyd, Bryan Ferry, Roxy Music, Mark Knopfler, The Eagles, Tom Petty, Toto and many others pay great attention to sound quality coming out on their studio releases (and hire the best of the best). However, those who take such care - re-dub things and if necessary and spend extra money to go back to the studio or go to several studios and do extra takes - these musicians are in a great minority. Unless you have such stubborn musicians that stand up to the producer and push for a great recording then a great recording is often simply a one off stroke of luck!!

Poor master tapes can be cleaned up - but you can't turn a sow's ear into a silk purse!

Newbee,

I'm talking about digital sources in general.

Warble was not a good choice of words. MAybe graininess would be better.

Its only on some recordings , not all, so its not an inherent issue with equipment or format.

I tend to agree with Shadorne's view that in most cases these issues are due to the imperfect process that goes into making recordings in many cases. In cases where attention is paid, the sound is fine in either medium with good quality equipment. No playback system at any cost can correct problems when they exist in the recording.

Would that be high quality NOS analog lipstick, or some of that new compressed digital stuff with fizzies and sparkles? I's just concerned about the 'soul' of the poor pig, you understand Grant?

It makes sense to me that people typically tune their system around the source material they use.

Those with large vinyl collections tune their systems primarily around this. Introducing a second source that inherently sounds different may now become a problem, especially for those with highly tuned ears: how do you get that second or third source that is now inherently different to sound equally as good?

I think the answer in many cases is you can't, at least not to the extent that you have for your primary source, whatever that is.

So those who own mostly CD tune to that. Those who own vinyl tune to that. Others like, me who are source agnostic, will try to get the sources to sound as good and as similar as possible and tune in each source as best as possible, but they will never sound exactly the same or equivalent when playing the same music for many reasons. I'm sure there are audiophiles out there that could never live with the fact that not all their sources sound equally good to them, because the fact is they will always sound different.

So one of my theories is that the preference people have for whatever is mainly because that is what serves them best, which is the way it should be.

But one person with a bias towards one medium telling another with a bias towards something different that theirs will never sound as good does not carry much weight.

Each has tuned their system the best they can within their means for their source material and different sources will always sound different. Which is better? It really doesn't matter. Neither is perfect and both deliver good but not perfect sound.

Both my vinyl and CD sources are Denon. This is not by chance. My hope is to make both sound equally good but also as similar as possible so that I can live with both without resorting to tone controls and such. But I have to say that getting two distinct sources for two distinct source media is not an easy task. Many audiophiles will chose to punt, I would guess.