Worth pursuing analog sound from digital?

I also bought a Nuwave DAC. It was good for the price. I then bought a Directstream DAC. WOW! It is a killer. Very analogue sounding. I see that the price for used ones has slipped recently. TMR has one for $2799.00 I think. You will not regret buying it. Joe

In my case it was easier to get analog to sound more like digital. I've got a decent analog chain (Denon DP47f, Krell KPE) and I upgraded my cartridge to a Hana SL. With the Hana the sound of analog and digital are remarkably close.

I've never had listener fatigue from digital - I got my first CD player in the 80's. In fact, the opposite is true. I am particularly sensitive to clicks, pops, and vinyl distortion from wear on the record. Listening to a worn vinyl record is stressful to me and many times I will turn it off halfway through. The clicks, pops, and distortion have the effect of focusing my attention to the defects and I find myself literally grinding my teeth.

CDs were a blessing from the start. Yes, there are some very poorly transferred CDs and I don't listen to them. But I have several hundred CDs and records of the same recording and the great majority of them sound pretty darn similar.  I have always been able to listen to CDs for hours without fatigue. The great majority of my audio goosebumps have come from listening to CDs.

I have had a succession of CD players (8 players, 2 transports and 2 DACs) and they have steadily gotten better. I now have a Marantz SA8005 for SACDs, a Krell KAV 250/2 for HDCDs, a Denon DVD 3800bcdi for Blu Ray HD Audio, and a PSA PerfectWave II DAC and Transport for regular CDs. Whatever millercarbon is hearing is just foreign to me and I couldn't be more thankful. Music from CDs have given me thousands of hours of enjoyment and have made my life better.

Yes but these days due to  streaming and not trying to read music data in real time off error laden optical disks.

That and most any decent DAC these days sounds very good.

elliottbnewcombjr

Digital is a broken chain, no matter how many links, how much you polish those broken links, Digital will/can NEVER be the unbroken chain analog is.

It isn't clear what you mean here. Digital isn't perfect - and neither is analog - but neither represent a "broken chain." Of course, some people believe that digital data is missing because of sampling rates (which is false, as long as Nyquist is observed) or that the LP has infinite resolution (which is false, or you could install Windows on it).

Analog is definitely higher noise ...

Often true, but no inherently so. It depends on the analog recording and the digital recording to which it's being compared.

Experiencing the Artist's conceived presentation of their chosen play list, in the order presented, is a part of LP ...

And of CD, too.

... amplification, it's the same, transistors were the instant on, less heat, more affordable dream, again, just not nirvana, not Analog like tube amplification is ...

Again, it isn't clear what you mean here. Solid state amplifiers for hi-fi use are certainly analog.

I live in the future where digital has higher resolution than analog, also much higher dynamic range, like it was always promoted to have but never really did. At the same time digital possesses both sweetness and air. And distortion is virtually non-existent. The problems with digital are not in the format per se, they’re in the playback system, i.e., CD player. If only you could hear what I’ve heard with my ears.