Why no interest in reel to reel if you're looking for the ultimate sound?

@rrcpa is correct. Open reel can be a PITA, but when its up and running, holy cow....its the  best audiophile elixir you can get your hands on.

rrcpa34

@cd318

Digital is measurably better than analogue by any known yardstick

This is known as ostentatious ignorance.

>>>>How so? Signal to Noise ratio is measurably much better. Dynamic Range is measurably much better. A lot depends on the source material, what with the loudness wars and everything. It also depends on WHERE THE MEASUREMENT IS MADE. It’s not 🍏 and 🍎 But all things being equal digital measures better.

It was a fine attempt @cd318, but alas, you attempted a discussion about religion, and that never goes well. Are high-res digital recordings more accurate than tape? ... of course, but good luck within a given crowd of having that discussion.

There will be the holy grail discussions of tape being the epitome of ultimate analog playback, with great vinyl only a bit behind, though exceptionally few will have heard the exact same recording played on tape and vinyl  (they don't sound the same, close, but not the same, most likely due to lack of channel separation in vinyl, but could be due to RIAA inaccuracies in specific setups, or cartridge matching, or ...)

Most audiophiles are older as well and have become accustomed to the sound of vinyl. The younger generation loves the "cool" factor of vinyl, but does not seem as drawn to the sonic characteristics.


On solid state amplifiers and tube amplifiers, though, that is a much different discussion, at least if the SS amp is designed with typical SS design goals, and the tube amp is designed with more traditional tube design goals. The tube amplifier has higher distortion, but some of those distortion products are typically not offensive, but we don't listen to amplifiers, we listen to speakers, which normally have far higher distortion than the amplifier. Are you certain, at the system level, that the solid state amplifier in combination with the speaker is the lowest distortion? ... and we have not even gotten into potential impacts on frequency response and how that impacts the typical audiophile in the typical room.

cd318952 posts05-19-2020 11:04amrauliruegas, orpheus10,

Interesting exchanges going on there. Ultimately I think you’re both right!

Digital is measurably better than analogue by any known yardstick, and ss amps distort way less than tube ones.

Yet for all its superiority digital has failed to win the hearts of audiophiles worldwide. For whatever reason it has not been able to establish itself as a perfected version of analogue. Certainly not with audiophiles.

We don't listen to measuring devices we listen to music. Ages ago when I was all about specifications I agreed with the SS people for just that reason; however, if my musical ears tell me one thing while electronic meters say another, I'm going to go with my musical ears and consider all else of no importance.

Since I down-load my reel to hardrive for playback, I think I can speak to the difference between the two with authority.

The direct reel playback is better by a hair, but not so much better that I don't enjoy the computer playback from the hard-drive. BTW, I use WAV which is the highest resolution and no longer available for HD down-loads.