Is Digital actually better than Analog?

Having read and enjoyed this thread so far I feel that it must be said that only well recorded discs either vinyl or polycarbonate sound good and all badly recorded discs sound bad.The people in the recording studio have a far greater effect on how a recording sounds than the method of play back.Copys transferred from the other format rarely are improvements,although I have a few lp,s transferred from digital master tapes that are stunning.I have over 2000 lp albums and mostly listen to less than 100 on a regular basis.I have maybe 300 cd,s and only 10-15 are as good as my better lp,s.Before owning my georgemark dac I only used the cd player to warm up the system before listening now there is a choice.George Bischoff sent me a home cut demo disc with the dac that is fantastic and the equal of any record I own but I am having great difficulty finding cd,s in my musical taste even close in performance,lets not shoot each others formats down, we as a consumer group need to put pressure on the recording studios to clean up their acts.We will never have live music from machines but the closest to live is always recorded faithfully at source.

Brian - I agree with you. After my short-lived foray with analog, I have decided that I am better off simply finding good recordings to get an improvement in sound quality. I have come to the conclusion that many recording engineers don't have good hearing - and they just don't care. Getting something out fast is the main goal in our capitalistic world and I would say they are pressured to do just that (for the most part). Quantity is worth more than quality. Just look at iPods. I would much prefer hearing excellent quality music in the evening than mediocre quality music all day. But I suppose I am part of the minority. The art of making an excellent recording seems to be dying. But the mainstream doesn't care - heck, they don't even notice with their poor quality playback systems.

Arthur

The art of making an excellent recording seems to be dying. But the mainstream doesn't care - heck, they don't even notice with their poor quality playback systems.

If you check pro audio forums you will see that recording/mastering engineers are often complaining about the demands of clients/producers to produce "loud" (=compressed) CD's.

The recording art and technology is not dying (although with all the available tricks in pro tools today there is a growing tendency to over-engineer things). The problem is that artists and producers are demanding loud in your face recordings, stuff that grabs attention but is easily tiresome to the ears! To me that is the problem.

Bob Katz has a web page that explains all the issues.

“recording/mastering engineers are often complaining about the demands of clients/producers to produce "loud" (=compressed) CD's”

Compressed music is my pet peeve. I simply cannot listen to any music if it has been compressed. Sadly, most of the rock and roll/pop genre is compressed. Damn shame I think.

Shadorne - I say quality recording is dying because that is what the "powers that be" want. And ultimately the consumer doesn't care - and so it goes. We are both saying the same thing.