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When is digital going to get the soul of music?

I have to ask this(actually, I thought I mentioned this in another thread.). It's been at least 25 years of digital. The equivalent in vinyl is 1975. I am currently listening to a pre-1975 album. It conveys the soul of music. Although digital may be more detailed, and even gives more detail than analog does(in a way), when will it convey the soul of music. This has escaped digital, as far as I can tell.
mmakshak
ivan_nosnibor's avatar
ivan_nosnibor
1,052 posts
 
Kijanki, hmmm. Thanks for your comments. Will see if I can keep a more open mind on the topic in the future...
bifwynne
2,206 posts
 
I'd like to add a "lay techie" comment. I hope that digital does improve to the point that it is consistently better sounding than vinyl. I'm NOT saying that all of my LPs sound better than my "redbook" CDs because they do not. But, IME and to my ears, subject to a few exceptions, my vinyl set up is better sounding than my redbook CDP.

Nevertheless, I am optimistic that the music industry at large will settle on a uniform digital format that will set a new standard of music playback and that will reliably out perform vinyl. Believe me -- I like to load and play for 60 or more minutes without worrying about picking up a tone arm at the end of a 15 to 20 min. playback, or replacing styli after 1500 hour so hours of use.

One other observation. ARC has been aggressively pushing forward on the digital front, now offering a new dedicated REF DAC and REF CD-9 CD player (replaced the REF CD-8). These new offerings are ridiculously expensive ($30K for the REF DAC and $16K for CD-9). Interestingly, these new products provide a half a dozen or more formats from which to choose. I hope ARC guessed it right. ;>')

Cheers.
jafant's avatar
jafant
19,950 posts
 
Naim gets to the soul of music, IMO.
ptss
1,964 posts
 
As soon as adequate isolation is used from ac to digital and digital to analog. It's a magical transformation. Cheers.
detlof
1,899 posts
 
I tend to agree with Koplo above. A good setup, though always sounding subtly different, compared to a good vinyl setup, sometimes even betters it in subjective listening tests, EXCEPT for big orchestral classical music. Redbook, in what ever way it is processed, just cannot do it here to my ears. Neither can SACD nor can HiRes files.
However with voices, chamber music or jazz combos, in a well set up computer rig, the soul is definitely there.
If even then you cannot hear it, the reason for it lies not in the music, but elsewhere.
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