When a Reviewer "likes" something

Dear Wolf: Why some of us don't like digital? because analog is a better technology?

certainly not, IMHO analog is no better technology that what we hear through 24/176.8 digital source.

Problem is that our system set up was set up to fulfil analog needs not digital needs. So when we put inside that system a digital source with out any re-set system then we don't like it.

In the other side as with tubes analog technology has not the higher accuracy we want and digital is a lot more accurate and neutral with a lot lower distortions and noise and the music recorded on digital is full of emotions too and you can feel it if you re-set your system and ears.

Analog signal is heavy and suffer manipulations through the recording and playback that digital does not. That de-emphasis RIAA during recording/cutting LP and the phono stage inverse RIAA eq. makes a lot of damage to the music signal and other degradations subjects on the whole analog signal.

Digital has its own " subjects " but certainly IMHO the digital signal is truer to the recording than any analog source.

Wolf, we are not talking here of that " I like it " that means nothing on the reality nothing on the true nothing on what is in the recording: digital or analog.

Same things happen when we swtich from LOMC cartridges to MM ones because we don't re-set the system to the MM needs but not because the MM alternative is wrong. Or when we switch from BD to DD TT, there are many examples on the same subject. We have to learn, all of us but is up to each one of us do it.

That " I like it " attitude is the cancer on each one of us and the audio industry is full of different kind of cancer, reviewers is one of that.

The good news is that each one of us can cure that cancer, learning about.

IMHO we have to fight against any kind of audio cancer. Or die with.

Regards and enjoy the music,
R.

It's great that some enthusiasts have the interest and time and resources to investigate very thoroughly certain audio topics/problems and then arrive at what is for them some "answer" or result to their inquiry. Perhaps reviewers should fall into this camp.

Many others just want to relax and enjoy their music without being haunted by the quest for the truth. Perhaps reviewers too often fall into this camp.

As far as "I like it" being an attitude which leads to audio cancer, well that is pretty provocative. I like listening to the BSO on Friday afternoons, and I also like listening to my stereo in the evenings. And the more one sounds like the other, the more I like it.

I appreciate both sides this discussion. I think Raul is right to a large degree but I am not sure what that degree is. I am not surprised that Wolf likes and, I thinks say he, that his tube equip is fun. Just think guitar amps. I agree with both. Wolf as a musician, recording tech and so on I think he would agree that tube equipment sounds more natural but not more accurate. Again to keep it simple just think guitar amps. Could be any instrument amplified. If he doesn't no big deal. A well mic'd set up I find more of the real life of the dynamism, micro-macro, even across the board sound pressure replayed through a ss units as opposed to tube. Sound is sound pressure and I find it is better done with ss. However one of the many big problems we have is, as a recording it becomes some, to very scaled down in its sound pressure for many reasons, so it is hard to recreate that which is not there. I think tubes give us a more pleasant and natural timbre and tone to the sound pressures we hear but not necessarily more naturally accurate musical instrument tone and timbre to go along with the more even sound pressure across the board. So as a play around guitar player with other friends and their instruments I feel the sense of the life of the music that a musician would be listening for(not all pleasant sounds but the raw thing)to me has been better portrayed by ss-stainless steel I mean ss-solid state. Think Gordon Holt. I do think because of some of the nasties of ss it is just a little harder, but not much, to get a somewhat, not exactly, similar naturally pleasant sound out of ss as that of tubes. A disclaimer-I am a professional toilet bowl cleaner.

Swamp, thanks. Sometimes a subject just gets to me.
Dude here. Too bad Raul has decided to hijack this thread. Hard to read through.

Is there an acronym for "non humble opinion?" IMNHO? I dispute the "accuracy" issue as I don't think at reasonable non clipping levels any decent tube amp sounds innacurate, nor does a good SS amp...both should sound great. I insist! I like good digital AND analog, which is not hard to do. I think one reason analog is interesting is the fact that it works at all, so I'm with Raul on that...sort of...and note that SS proponents are often more sharply analytical and strident, and tube freaks are warm and natural...you want a dominatrix in a rubber nurses uniform or a cute hippy chick in a hot tub? (rhetorical question only)