Vinyl vs. top-notch digital

yeah right. 2 different hi-rez professional recording chains were simultaniously mysteriously faulty and the three pro audio guys plus the producer were oblivious to that. and remember; their recorders were getting the same signal source as my amps and speakers......but could not fully reproduce it at playback. any distortion in my tt would (according to your position) also be in the recording.

Distortion, S/N and other specifications on the type of high end digital gear used should have made your observations impossible provided the equipment was working properly and operated correctly.

i have one question. if you had been there and heard it; checked and rechecked your gear; and then heard it again.....would you then believe it?

here is what the pro audio guys said. "i guess i've never been exposed to a really high performance vinyl set-up before.....it really openned my eyes".

i have one question. if you had been there and heard it; checked and rechecked your gear; and then heard it again.....would you then believe it?

Well I would naturally be alarmed and would want to investigate further. High end pro digital recording equipment should be good enough (based on specifications and test measurements) that one should not normally be able to hear a difference even with headphones.

I don't doubt you have an eye opening system and that is much better sounding on vinyl than digital and much better sounding than anything I could ever aspire to. Please don't take this as any reflection on your system it is just that digital recording equipment really should work much better than you observed.

Jeff,

If you do decided to try an analog front end (and spend comparitive dollars to do so), do not forget (IMHO) two of the most important components of an analog front end - proper set-up and a good record cleaning machine (or process).

A poorly set-up $10k analog front end will be nothing more than a pretty showpiece (until you tire of dusting it). Pay for someone to come to your home and set up your rig.

Also, clean source material is a must. Don't overlook this critical component.

Shadorne,
You could very well be right about digital recordings and digital in general.

Disregard what Harry Pearson and Roy Gregory have written about digital and analog sound these past few years.
Their just acouple of audio industry whores pushing way over priced analog junk before the trend withers away.

Also,
What possibly would Mike lavigne know about home stereos and music?
Did you get a chance to read anything on his page?

Shurley he has to be nuts...

Shadorne, your posts are typially well considered and even though we are not agreeing here i don't take your comments as any sort of judgement on my system.

please understand i am very pro digital and typically listen to digtial 60% to 70% of the time. i am as interested in hearing the very best digital player possible as i am the top level analog/vinyl. in fact; i think my current digital player sets a new digital standard. i say 'think' because i have not heard everything out there. let's just say that i know what top level digital performance is. and that, as good as it may be, is really not very close to what top level vinyl can do at this particular point in time.....although it is slowly getting closer.

i've been going down this path for 8 or so years now; since i purchased the Linn CD-12 in 1999 and the Marantz SA-1 in 2000. so i am not just shooting from the hip here. i have 3500 CD's and 800 SACD's and for many of those i have Lp versions.

that recording session i referred to was a very interesting event. it's too bad more digital dogma believers were not present to witness it. those pro audio guys work with those digital tools daily and certainly came to that session with similar notions as yourself. but listening to 8 to 10 hours of tests and more tests and then doing 2 sets of each recording and having 5 people's opinions on each of those events. there was no place to hide from the truth. and that truth is that digital recording is not able to reproduce the magic of vinyl.

OTOH digital is wonderful in it's own right and needs make no apologies. it simply is not quite as 'perfect sound forever' as some might think.