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.
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”.
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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 |
+1 @mahler123 |
As they say in the proverb, which wolf will win the fight? The one you feed. Feed the one you prefer and find it closer to your heart. I have both CDs and vinyl. Most of them do not overlap. In general, I like CD (or streaming) for a light casual listening. I use LPs to time travel. Sure, modern recordings have gone a long way. The "sound" very good, and say this sounds "perfect". No errors that I can identify. Then I listen to a transfer from the 1930s, and I feel my heart and soul bleed. So vastly beyond sound. But that sort of experience is not for audio club meetings, you never get into that state when you have buddies along.... that's time to explore your SOUL. And those recordings done in the 30s, 40s, 50s hit just so deep... It's not just the media. It's the people recorded. 30s-50s: those artists have gone through everything in life. Most of them were victims of war, fleeing from Europe and getting recorded in America. They've seen their lives turned upside down, and that comes through their art. Today our issues are about various levels of comfort, political correctness and desire for more money or power or sex. There's an odd poet here and there who go deeper, but not nearly as deep as those who have went through one or both world cataclysms. Want to hear Rachmaninoff, Bartok, Schnabel, Martzy play? Or want to hear a contemporary technical virtuoso rock out... A question of taste and what you crave. Each for a different occasion, a different mood. I'm glad we have media specialized for each. I have had tons of experiences with digital sounding "THIS IS AWESOME!!!" But I only had experiences with vinyl when I dread to play it again.. I even gave an LP away because it had such a deep effect that it traumatized me, and I don't think I could ever bear hearing it again.
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