When is digital going to get the soul of music?

I think what is being called "soul" (or musicality) has much to do in fact with PRaT. With vinyl/analog you have a proper sense of "timing". A kind of "timing" that allows you to relax between the notes. It sounds strange but this is what (above all else) gives reproduced sound "musicality". It is not the ability to reveal micro information burried in the music or to deliver abundant macro dynamics. It is the way of reproducing sound without any stress and with the right "flow".
With some digital gear you have the feeling of "uneasyness" that can be very tiring. I think many of you have experienced the feeling of relaxation that immediately appears after you've switched source from CD --> vinyl during a listening sesseion.

Chris

Chris,
Basically I am complete agreement. Digital however has improved in the last decade and these days you can set up a system, I would say in the way Pscanli has suggested above, which will give you the same micro and macro dynamics as vinyl/analogue would, *IF* you stick to voices and small groups, string quartets, Jazz-combos etc. I still cannot bear digital with big symphonic music. There is still too much missing, which a good analog/vinyl rig will give us plenty of.

Hey guys, how can you make such broad statements about the effect of format choices, like digital v vinyl. IMHO you can tune your system to enhance either format so there is NO fatigue. It only gets tough when you try to tune your system to enhance both. In my experience anyway - I've always had a hard time optimally tuning for more than one source, let alone different formats. But its fun trying! :-)

"I've always had a hard time optimally tuning for more than one source, let alone different formats. But its fun trying!"

That is exactly what I try to do with my system, ie tune each source to sound as similar as possible using a variety of reference recordings in each format.

My results currently are still not perfect, but very good nonetheless, and the best I've had on my systems ever by a good margin.

Common noise factors associated with imperfect vinyl is typically the only way I can really tell for sure whehter digital or vinyl is playing. Otherwise it is hard to tell from recording to recording. If I do not hear any background noise, it is hard to tell. That makes me very happy!

Newbee, Mapman, sorry to -in a sense- to disagree with both of you. If you are crazy enough to try and drive both formats to the limit of what is possibly today, not even in terms of money, but that also, however certainly in terms of tweaking, you will find that both formats have advantages over one another. Old vinyl still reigns supreme in terms of classic orchestra, digital in other fields. None is "better", both are different and you can count yourself lucky, if you can get the best of both worlds. Wished you could come over to the Alps so I could show you what I mean.