Vinyl vs high def audio i.e. 24bit / 96 or 192khz

lalitk-

“Vinyl is more for people who love music.”

Thanks for humoring us.......LMAO!!!! 😂 🤣😂

Vinyl is so much better than digital its silly to even talk about, as that can't be done without assuming they are comparable, when they aren't. One is music, the other noise. A whole lot of people miss this, because the noise of vinyl is so obvious. The noise with digital is woven right into the signal. With digital its silly even to talk about signal to noise ratio. With digital the signal IS the noise!

The situation is so bad people try and make their digital sound better by dubbing it to analog. Seriously! Famous Blue Raincoat, which shows on the jacket as DDD, the final mix-down was in fact done to analog. Several versions were compared, none of them preferred DDD, they all went with the analog.

The one thing that gives the numbers crunchers cover is the sad reality of vinyl being temperamental. Unlike digital, the plain fact is no two records sound exactly the same. Better Records has thrown a microscope on this, but anyone who cares can prove it easily enough simply by playing two copies of the same record back to back. 

What this means is that digital vs analog is not like most people think a question of sound quality. Its a question of convenience. 

Which is why I said in the beginning, " Since you are mainly interested in convenience then you should just stick with what you know. Vinyl is more for people who love music." And that's no joke.

^^+1

I have it all. Vinyl is euphoric like tubes, it is tradition, it is a collectors dream, and lastly it is tweaky. There is so much you can do with it. What are you going to do with zeros ones. Vinyl once set up is really just a little more work than CDs
I have 192/24 HDtracks and Vinyl versions of both Dylan’s Desire and the first Santana album. Actually the Santana might 88/24.
the Vinyl has a sense of space missing in the digital versions. This might be a euphemism but I like it. The vinyl obviously has more noise. Tell me of any venue that does not have extraneous noise. People cough and shuffle around, talk to each other etc. as long as it is not a big loud scratch the noise in the vinyl biases your brain. It actually is more like the real experience!  Digital is silent, drier, more up front. The violin in Hurricane has a bit of a sting to it missing in the vinyl version. Dynamics are the same.
Albums that have been remastered specifically for high resolution digital are however amazing. Just have your wife cough once in a while.

@atmasphere Actually I understand your point. It's true that the original master digital file could be closer to the original. It's not completely lossless like Vinyl -- I'm no expert, but do they sample above 786khz / 32 bit depth? If not, I may as well just invest in a Chord Hugo 2 which can play up to 32 bit / 786khz or DSD 128. We have a local Vinyl shop in Austin and the owner acknowledged that some "Modern reproduction" of old vinyls are converted back from Digital, often at no greater than CD quality. The only way to experience true Vinyl, at least from what I read, is if the LP is pressed from a pure analog master recording which is rare nowadays let alone going to the future. 

I have no doubts pure analog is better -- I've experienced it in various friend's homes or boutique shops, the "three dimensional-ness" that many refer to. However, given the lack of willingness pursuit for quality products exhibited by today's younger generation, I fear less and less recording studio will be willing to spend time and effort to create a pure analog master tape. If you tell my sister, who's 23, about Vinyl, she will give you a quizzical look and just ignores you completely. This is unfortunate, I know, but the industry is profit driven, and the few of us who's willing to pay for it won't be as profitable as the masses who just want something cheap and simple. 

On a side note, anyone a Celtic music fan? I almost listen exclusively to Celtic music. Here are some artists I listen to:

Loreena McKennitt
Enaid --  Avalon - A Celtic Legend
Méav Ní Mhaolchatha
Enya

I also have some albums from Sara Brightman & The Carpenters. I know The Carpenters definitely have "real" LPs, but those Celtic artists may not have "true" LP releases. I am not expert enough to figure out whether those out there are just from digital conversion or real analog press. If I manage to pick up some true analog LPs for the above mentioned artists, I may invest in a system. Certainly, any recommendations to other good Celtic music is strongly appreciated.