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What is the reason for this? (Digital vs Vinyl Question)

I recently bought new speakers - GoldenEar Triton One.R towers - to pair with my Naim Uniti Star. My set-up for digital is the Naim with Ethernet, Qobuz & Tidal HiRes organized and played through Roon. With all of my other systems until now I preferred the sound of vinyl over digital. I have a Rega Planar 3 tt with Rega Fono preamp. I spin the highest quality records you can get - Mofi 1 Step, Analogue Productions, Classic Records, etc. etc. I've been listening for days trying to convince myself otherwise because of the $$ I've spent on records but the digital chain just sounds better to my ears. The question is: Is this because my new speakers are revealing the disparity between digital and analog better than lesser speakers I've used in the past (Monitor Silver, PSB Platinum, etc.) or is it because some speakers just match better with digital vs vinyl or is it because with the Naim streamer / DAC I've just put together a better digital front end and need to upgrade my tt and / or phono preamp?  
jdm11
ghdprentice
7,282 posts
 
Congratulations on the upgrade. I can completely understand your surprise. While digital has been getting better, typically you have to work at it and throw a lot more money at it for it to sound similar, let alone better. For decades I have tried to get my digital end to sound as good as my vinyl. I have finally gotten to the point where I have to say both are equally satisfying, but still my analog end is still more detailed although with $10K less investment over the digital end. Personally, if this happened to me, I would also question what was wrong with my vinyl end. You have substantial investment in vinyl.

Personally I would investigate the tt setup, cartridge, and if this doesn’t bring up the performance, consider upgrading if you want to get the most out of your vinyl. Vinyl is still the gold standard of any well set up synergistic system.
unreceivedogma's avatar
unreceivedogma
1,000 posts
 
My system reveals the difference between digital and analogue also. Sigh.

And analog definitely has the upper hand.

To be fair, I have a Rega Planet CD player trying to compete with a Koetsu Onyx / Sumiko MMT / VPI HW MK IV. Not exactly balanced competition.

But, I can even hear when a vinyl press has been recorded and or (re)mastered digitally (DDA or ADA) , and it does not sound as good as AAA (analog recording, mastering, press).

theaudioatticvinylsundays.com
unreceivedogma's avatar
unreceivedogma
1,000 posts
 
thebrokenrecord:

I really don’t see the point in paying $300 for an LP that I can get for $30.

If we all took very good care of the records that we bought in the 50s through the 80s (my listening sweet spot) for $7 on average, we already have hundreds to thousands of these LPs, by the luck of the draw.

And, at the end of the day, there were some artists who were never pressed well, and Hot Stamper or whatever name they hype themselves by will never find one. I’m thinking of The Joy of Cooking, or Janis Ian, examples of where I bought a half dozen copies and they are all bad and identically so.

At the end of the day, I buy artists and their music, and sometimes I have to settle.

Hot Stamper is just exploiting the guillability of folks with too much money to spend. My two sense.

theaudioatticvinylsundays.com
thebrokenrecord
37 posts
 
unreceivedogma:

We'll just have to agree to disagree on this. Perhaps if you heard on of BR's records on a great analog system you'd change your mind!
unreceivedogma's avatar
unreceivedogma
1,000 posts
 
Btw, and others may have already made this observation so I apologize for any redundancy, but rule of thumb is that digital sounds better than vinyl at entry level. Even with your upgrade, you are still at entry level.
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