analog vs. digital better ? or just different

07-11-08: Czbbcl
It is the noise issue with analogue that I can not stand. Snaps and pops are just not acceptable to me and are very much apart of analogue.

And do coughs, sneezes, ventilation noise, shuffling chairs and squeaking seats make the sound of live music unacceptable to you? We usually learn to hear past those.

I hear past a few ticks and pops for the musical reward of warm analoggy goodness. And the more I know about vinyl playback, the more I can get surface noise and pops to disappear or recede.

When noise and compression overwhelm LP playback to make it unenjoyable, the issue is the playback chain, not the medium.

By the early '80s, there were plenty of studio analog tape recorders with dynamic range of 100 dB or more. The switch to digital was largely a production issue--it made it easier to turn music into a manufactured product and less of an artistic endeavor. Now you could shift pitch without changing speed, or change speed without shifting pitch. You could mix and remix with no generation deterioration (not taking jitter into consideration).

And look where that got us. Recorded music has lost its value. $12 CDs are considered too expensive. People want free downloads. Adjusted for inflation, I was paying $22 per LP when I was in jr. hi and high school.

Jrw40: "ill leave brand names out of it"

Ummm, why? Any reason why you don't want to tell us what equipment you have? You have a giant pool of audio addicts here, who can give you all kinds of advice on your system (given more info.).

It's like asking "tubes, vs. SS" w/o discussing your system specifics.....

french fries is correct....

steve audio, i left brand names out for the reason you might think, x brand rules vs. x brand sucks. but here we go . pro-ject perspective 2 with carbon fiber tonearm, benz micro mc cartridge. cairn nitro preamp with phono card cairn fog 3 with upsampling card, cairn ko2 amp with sonus cremona speakers. all in all a very satisfying system. though i am considering a cartridge change.

The best of both is about the same; however, I think that you need to spend more on digital to get it up to the analog hurdle, but once there, it's every bit as good.

Dave