2. digital
  3. 153103-1635

Another Analog v. Digital Thread? Not Really

I’ll try to keep this as short as possible. The premise is this: If the highest compliment that can be given to digital is that it sounds analog, why bother with digital? I would never have posted this question, but the other week something happened. After owning my Oppo 205 for about a year and a half, I decided to sell it given the fact I wasn’t that crazy about it and the selling prices were quite good, although I posted mine for significantly less than many others are asking. BTW - In the last month I owned the Oppo, I found it tremendously improved by placing a Vibrapod 3 under each foot.

So a nice young man comes by for an audition and he likes the Oppo very much and purchases it. He is into 4k and all that stuff, but also wants some better audio quality. So that’s that.

Before he leaves, he asks to hear a vinyl record played on my Basis turntable. It’s a nice table - 2001 with Vector arm and Transfiguration Orpheus. I would rate it as the low end of the high end. Well the guy’s jaw just dropped. After sitting for an hour listening to the Oppo, he says that everything is so much more "alive" was the word he used and he couldn’t get his mind around the fact that he was listening to the exact same system with everything the same except the source.

I was considering replacing the Oppo with something like a Cambridge transport and Orchid dac because I have to play my CDs, right? But then I starting thinking why I had to play CDs anymore at all. It’s not so crazy when you think about it. Many of us gave up vinyl when CDs started getting decent, so what’s so strange about going back in the other direction?

So I asked myself - if analog is so much better, why would I even bother listening to CDs anymore?
Convenience? Well, sure, but I don’t really consider putting on a record very inconvenient, so that’s not really it.
Many titles on CD that are not on vinyl? I think that argument may be largely dissipated nowdays. It seems that virtually anything I would remotely want to listen to is available on vinyl, either new or used. You have thousands of CDs? OK, but if they don’t sound as good as a record, why would you want to listen to them just because you have them. I know it seems like a waste, but it happens sometimes.

Let me just finish with this, so there’s no confusion. If you have some insane high-end digital rig that you believe outdoes analog, this is not directed to you. But, for anyone who believes the best compliment you can give to digital is that it sounds analog, why bother? Also, to you streamers out there, the freedom from having a large quantity of physical media in your home is definitely a good argument. We all collect too much stuff and it’s nice to get rid of some.

Hopefully, this will be taken in the spirit it’s given, but I doubt it.
Merry Christmas, really.
chayro

Showing 4 responses by jaytor

jaytor's avatar
jaytor
742 posts
 
@millercarbon - that may be (likely is) true but it doesn't answer the question. Why do LPs sound better when the recording was mastered digitally and never converted back to analog before making the CD? It's my understanding (which may be incorrect) that this is the way almost all music is produced now and for the past 15-20 years.

There are, of course, exceptions, but that's not what I'm asking about. I can completely understand how an analog master will sound better transferred to LP than to CD. I absolutely loved the sound of the Sheffield Labs direct to disc recordings I had in the 70s and 80s and, despite the fact they weren't always the greatest musicians/performances, the sound was amazing. 
jaytor's avatar
jaytor
742 posts
 
In the late 80's and early 90's, I had what was then considered a fairly SOTA analog system - Goldmund Studio table (T3 arm, can't remember version) with a Koetsu MC cartridge, AR SP10 preamp. But my music collection was slowing moving toward CDs for convenience, and after moving four times in five years for my job, dealing with the analog source become too much hassle. 

I regret selling off my LP collection for pennies on the dollar (pre-ebay days), but I don't really miss dealing with setting up the cartridge/table correctly, cleaning records, having my blood pressure skyrocket any time someone else in my family wanted to use my system, etc. 

I don't disagree that a good analog front-end can sound glorious. I've heard some modern systems that are pretty amazing.

What I'm curious about is what makes LPs sound better to so many people, given that the vast majority of LPs are digitally mastered these days. Is it that most digital playback systems just aren't up to the level of the gear used to produce the recordings, or is it that a good analog system adds a quality to the signal that can't (or hasn't yet been) replicated in the digital domain? Or is the preference for analog only for recordings that were mastered completely in the analog domain?
jaytor's avatar
jaytor
742 posts
 
The only thing I can postulate is that the surface noise on LPs is masking the digital artifacts that we find most offensive and letting the beauty of the music come through. But if that is the case, it seems like it would be easy to add this kind of noise to a digital source (although it would obviously make the device measure must worse). 

I suspect that even if this is a factor, it's not the only thing that makes analog front-ends sound the way they do.
jaytor's avatar
jaytor
742 posts
 
I don't have a turntable any more so I can't really comment on the comparison. But in the past few years of having access to good quality content through streaming, I have discovered more music I love than in the previous 40 years as an audiophile. I couldn't imagine giving that up at this point. 

I love finding more music, and while I certainly have my favorites that I go back to often, I love discovering new artists, and even new genres that I never paid attention to in the past.

Since I am close to retiring, I am also watching my hifi budget much more than I have in years past, so the idea of splitting my more-limited budget between digital and analog doesn't make sense to me. 

If I'm going to spend $3K, $5K, or $10K more on my audio system, I'd rather spend it on upgrading my digital front-end (or other components) instead of adding a decent quality turntable, tonearm, cartridge and phono stage.  And that's before investing in any actual music, which is what it's all about.
More to discover