2. digital
  3. 179612-142872

Its not vinyl

I have read 100’s of discussions on the subject of building a streaming digital option for audiophile systems. Everything from the internet connection to the streaming source and then the dac. In my reading through the posts the argument will quickly turn to its not analog, vinyl is better, on the anti streaming side and then on the pro streaming side posters will fed the argument with its almost as good as my phono stage, sounds better than analog. This will even hold true within the dac manufactures and dac owners who will refer to their dac sound as analog sounding or just like phono. I think this is most referenced in the R2R dac category. I started a discussion on the new Gustard R26 which is a discrete R2R ladder dac. Right away I was confronted with “why do you want to spend the money to replace your phono analog end that you already have and sounds great”?  I  Replied with the usual “phono does sound better, even a $30,000 dac will never beat analog and all the other analog vs digital talking points”. Then it hit me that we have been arguing this wrong all this time. The argument should be that the quest in putting together a top notch streaming digital setup is not a quest to beat analog or beat phono. The quest and objective is to achieve a “ less digital sound”. We all know that sharp, bright  razor blades in my bleeding ears sterile digital sound, that will bring in-listener fatigue and quickly want you turning off the music. What I am reiterating here is that the quest the cost and the journey in digital is not to beat analog it is to beat “digital”.

sgreg1
sns
3,493 posts
 

Well, I do understand loving the packaging and art of vinyl, have over 3500 lps at this point. but we're talking about sound quality here. I'm not looking at art when I'm entirely engaged with listening, and the point is digital can totally engage you.

 

@baylinor +++ One slight difference, I'm hearing more convergence of the two as my digital streaming chain continues to improve. Timing has major impact on digital, as jitter decreases, sense of ease, relaxing into the music takes over, closing in on my analog here, and this with delta sigma dac.

sgreg1 OP
612 posts
 

The post have gone where I thought they would and  that is what I wanted to point out. Which ever delivery system you use digital or analog it should not be about one beating or one equaling the other. Analog only needs to better analog and digital only needs to better digital. Both are excellent form of music enjoyment that need not be competing with each other at every turn. 

mahler123
3,446 posts
 

+1 @jasonbourne52 

 

 

I don't understand why anyone would want a digital system to sound like vinyl.  If that is  the goal, then  wear earplugs to decrease the dynamic range and fry bacon in the background.  

   I had tired of the vinyl sound in the early eighties and have also regarded digital as a much truer to the source sound.  There are some re mastered albums from the analog era that sound worse in their present digital form, but the problem is the remastering, not the medium 

tomcarr
1,570 posts
 

+1 @jasonbourne52 

+1 ​​​@mahler123 

rvpiano's avatar
rvpiano
2,713 posts
 

I so agree that we SHOULD be able to listen to analog and digital and appreciate each for its own unique character. BUT, I can’t do it because I very much want both to be equal in SQ, and in my case they aren’t. So, I listen mostly to that which sounds better (digital.)

More to discover