Digital Source with Tube Amplification

Onhwy61 - I absolutely believe that there's some truth in almost every caveat that is mentioned, but my point is that these types of things should be assumed and unecessary to bring up in every post.

For example:
Jmcgrogan2's post could have simply said, "In my experience I'd rather listen to an AAD CD than a digitally mastered LP so assuming that the album being used is an analog recording with analog mixing, I would choose 1, 2, 3, 4 as my preferred order of system combinations generally speaking."

I would then take this to be his general opinion and not absolute fact in every case on every system combination. I'm guessing that some of the rest of the post was provided tongue in cheek, but you get my point.

Jmcgrogan2 does bring up an interesting point that a digitally mastered LP isn't superior to the CD. I have a coworker that strongly prefers vinyl, but says he can't really tell a difference between a digitally mastered LP and the same CD.

When I record vinyl to CD or digital CD res .wav file, I am generally not able to tell that CD or digital file is now the source.

I'm not saying my vinyl playback rig is the best out there, but it is pretty good, better than most, and sounds wonderful to me, so I am confident in saying it ain't no slouch either. And I think my digital is pretty well up there as well.

10-31-13: Mceljo
Jmcgrogan2 does bring up an interesting point that a digitally mastered LP isn't superior to the CD. I have a coworker that strongly prefers vinyl, but says he can't really tell a difference between a digitally mastered LP and the same CD.

I concur a digitally mastered LP sounds about the same as a CD to me, and bad CD's too, as most of this digital mastering was done in the 80's and 90's when digital was a trendy buzz word, but not done very well at all. In this case (digital mastered LP) I would rather have the CD with tube amplifier over the vinyl with solid state. However, if the LP is mixed and mastered in the analog domain, I would prefer to listen to vinyl with a solid state amp than a CD or digitally mastered LP on a tube amp.

In keeping with the hypothetical choices/ pairing options put forth by Mceljo I'd take CD with tube electronics rather than analog record with solid state electronics. I'll skip the caveatscable.
Charles,

For me, I most often listen to something close to Option 3 (CDP to tube amp to speaker); I actually use a music server to play ripped CDs. This is not necessarily a quality choice, but a practical one. Most of my collection is CDs, primarily because newer classical releases are available ONLY in digital form. Fortunately, classical CDs are recorded and mastered to sound quite decent. Even re-releases from older analogue sources sound good in digital versions (e.g., many DG recordings have been remastered to sound much better than their crappy 1970-80's vinyl recordings). I tend to also listen more to non-classical music from digital sources these days from the server because it is so much more convenient than either CDs or vinyl.

For non-classical music, my very best sounding music is mostly found on vinyl--rock and jazz from the pre-digital era usually sounds much better on the original vinyl. I don't think this is so much an inherent superiority of vinyl as it is more the case of bad/indifferent mastering to digital. With some reissues, it may also reflect deterioration of the original source that accounts for the inferior reissues--some recordings just don't sound as good in any form of reissue.

If I had to choose between digital and vinyl as a source (purely an academic exercise), it would be digital because there is A LOT more music available in that format. I have MANY more recordings available only in digital format than I have vinyl recordings not available in a digital format.

For me, the choice of tube amplification makes a BIG difference in the sound. The particular tube amps I like have no comparable solid state offerings. But, I would not generalize that tube is superior to solid state because, to me, MUCH tube gear offered actually sounds worse than comparably priced solid state gear.

Hence, I arrived at Option 3 because the CD source would make available the widest range of music, and I happen to like and use tube electronics for amplification. I use either a low-powered single ended amp or a low-powered pushpull amp (I am not wedded to either camp). Last night, I got to hear again a particular OTL amp I have not heard in a while and it might be the very best amp I've heard (one of a kind 35 watt monobloc amp).