Which is more accurate: digital or vinyl?

Terry9 says:

"Were it true that ultrasonic distortion was inaudible, SACD would be no improvement on CD, which is not observed. Therefore, I stand by the assertion that total distortion is what is important, until it is proved otherwise."

Actually, on various hybrid CD/SACDs from Telarc and Mobile Fidelity, so the recording is the same, this is exactly what I have observed. I still have very good hearing, and on a moderately high-end system (Revel Salon 2s) I can't hear any improvement with the SACD layer over the CD layer. Not a bit.

I suppose there will be those that say my SACD player isn't good enough (Sony 5400ES), or that I'm not a good listener, or whatever, but if there is a difference it is very subtle.

I think a lot of CDs don't sound very good because they weren't mastered very well. I think a lot of SACDs sound better than CDs because they were mastered well. But I've never heard an SACD that sounds better than the best CDs I own.

I have downloaded a few high-res files, but I can't directly compare them to CD, because I don't have CD versions. But the high-res stuff are all purist recordings, so naturally they sound good.

Is analog better than any digital format? Better for recording than 24/192? 30ips 1/2 inch tape is pretty good, but can it compete with a noise floor at least 20db lower? Or no wow and flutter at all. If I were trying to make the world's best recording I'd start with digital.

When asked about the LP, Rudy Van Gelder, who gained fame for recording: Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, Sonny Rollins, Joe Henderson, Grant Green, Wayne Shorter, John Coltrane, and many others on Blue Note, replied, "Good riddance". That tells me something.

Once the original signal goes to the mic, accuracy is lost, engineer twiddling on the eq also departs from accuracy. So the question should be..... what screws up the signal less, digital or analog. The high rez digital I have heard recently equalled the best analog I have heard and exceed lesser analog by a good margin. The best is the one which uses the best mic and has the least recording engineer editoralizing. Both digital and analog can be great, but will the engineer allow it?....jallen

Great post by Jallen. Kudos on that one.

Vinyl has presence, you are there, something digital needs to improve on.