2. analog
  3. 1378414454

Can Digital beat our Analog installations?

Having gone a long walk on developing my analog systems I am addicted to phono reproduction. Nevertheless I always kept an eye on CDs and also SACDs. Before I currently updated my digital dCS chain to the complete Scarlatti boxes I experimented on the best wordclocking connections. in the end I decided going for an additional rubidium clock added to my Verona master clock.

I am using also a second system equipped with the Accuphase 800 drive and 801 DAC, an Esoteric XO1 Limited and a Wadia 861 SE for other utilization. Let's concentrate on the dCS stack. These four boxes are sounding such good and analog like that I like to question my friends, Why isn't Digital an alternative to our best analogue chains?

So it's time comparing digital vs. analog systems and maybe some sophisticated digital chains are beating our sophisticated analog systems. Will it be possible?
thuchan
charles1dad's avatar
charles1dad
10,249 posts
 
Al,
Your reply to Buconero117 was rational and intelligent and par for the course . No one here is knocking analog whatsoever, quite the contrary(it's used here as a lofty standard for crying out loud).
I dont understand why those who prefer analog records get so worked up over this common subject. This isn't religion folks.
Charles,
grannyring's avatar
grannyring
6,464 posts
 
Pop, pop, click, click oh what a distraction it is ...... To me and the sole reason I cannot do records!
tomcy6's avatar
tomcy6
2,580 posts
 
Digital is still in the early days of its development. There will continue to be significant improvements in sound quality and user experience, e.g. metadata, room correction, etc., for many years to come.

I think eventually you will even be able to replicate the sound of vinyl including groove noise, pops and clicks and your choice of equalization curve in a one box system.
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
In 2002 at the CES high end audio show of the six best sounding systems in the show as judged by senior audiophile reviewers all except one was digital. The one judged the best of show was all digital. Note to self: that was almost 12 years ago!
sm2727
115 posts
 
I think a dollar amount has to be established for the discussion to make sense. After 10 years of trying to get digital right, I spent half as much on analog and it sounds better than any dcs or wadia set up I had.
More to discover