2. digital
  3. 138199-1252

Pieces of music that digital can't get right

Ok I have a litmus test for digital when ever I have the rare option of upgrading my digital front end. Its tough on digital. Brutally tortuous and unforgiving. Digital proponents have a difficult time accepting these sonic tests. 
1. Ok here is the first one. On the opening of America's "Ventura Highway" the opening dueling guitars are ambient and bounce off each channel very pleasantly in the analog domain. In the digital domain the channels are totally separate and too clean and sterile lifeless sounding. They are  not talking to each other It was like this with ny Marantz 8005 but the SA-10 gets halfway there.
2. In the opening of "I Feel Fine" by the Beatles the electric guitar sounds alive with ambiance and decay. The Digital is clean and lifeless.
 Ok am I right with these observation?. I have a pretty good SACD player in SA-10. Its no slouch. Do the mega expensive super smart and accurate DACs get my two above mentioned  passages right? Or are we hearing colored vinyl artifacts. Well if we are I like the record better!
128x128blueranger

Showing 4 responses by cleeds

Ag insider logo xs@2x
cleeds
5,645 posts
 
It looks like you’re comparing two completely different pressings. That introduces a variable that makes drawing any conclusion about the differences between analog and digital invalid.

One way to conduct a meaningful comparison is to digitize a good LP. If the digital copy can reproduce all of the LP’s nuances - or not - then you can draw a meaningful conclusion from that.
Ag insider logo xs@2x
cleeds
5,645 posts
 
michaelgreenaudio

Blueranger, your using the same components for both sources. One input is "tuned" to your Table. Your CDP needs it’s own system so you can tune it in to your digital source.
I think this is completely mistaken. A properly set up system can play analog and digital recordings equally - within the limits of each format. Over the years, as digital has continually improved, I have found that good digital and good analog sound increasingly alike on my system. The notion that each source requires its own system is really misguided, imo, and suggests that neither system is sounding its best.

Old proverb: A man with two clocks never knows the correct time.


Ag insider logo xs@2x
cleeds
5,645 posts
 
michaelgreenaudio

For me personally, I don’t use multi-source same system settings for doing any referencing.
I'm not even sure what this means.
Ag insider logo xs@2x
cleeds
5,645 posts
 
falconquest
... He has a very nice system and thought he would impress me ... As soon as the stylus hit the surface, there it was, that unmistakable background rumble and snap, crackle, pop.
It sounds like his "nice system" isn’t so nice. If that’s what you heard as soon as the stylus landed on the LP, something was amiss. And given that you heard both rumble and a noisy LP surface, it’s likely that more than one thing was wrong with his system. That’s not especially surprising, however - I’ve found that many users have improperly setup turntables.

Or, perhaps he just had a really bad pressing. That can happen, too.
More to discover