When is digital going to get the soul of music?

That would be something to see, Guidocorona! It would have to be all silver, with pebbles placed at appropriate locations.

Wadia 581se seems good to me.

I just recently got my analog(Linn Sondek, Ekos, nude Archiv, Lingo, Mana table, Lehmann Black Cube SE) going. It seems to me that if you listen deeply, digital has an end, or something, to the sound(dither?), and analog doesn't. With analog, all you have is the instrument sound, and nothing else. Now, I have heard digital recordings of analog where it seems there is no difference(from Alex of APL), but I no longer have access to these. I will be going to BAAS's session this month where we will compare live versus recorded(both analog and digital). Cookie, who owns her own recording studio and is hosting this session, claims that you have to record to 3 1/2 inch analog tape to get proper sound. I don't know if I've stated this before, but I have the following theory: With analog, you have the iron(?) particles lining up(or changing)due to music. And with digital, you have the recording mechanism imposing(you fit into my one's and zero's-or else..) itself on the music. Maybe that's the difference?

Mmakshak, I think the difference between the finest vinyl and digital has closed greatly in the last five years with better dacs and teflon output caps as well as going to read until right hard drives as a digital source. Finally, I have found the finest of isolation, Halcyonics, drives both to their highest levels yet.

I still suspect that neither will ever equal quality reel to reel tapes at close to the originals.

I also believe that neither digital nor vinyl will closely approach live with the speakers and the amplifiers being the major reason for this failure.

With every improvement I have made to pursue realism, I still hear a difference between vinyl and digital. Vinyl now has virtually no surface noise, thanks largely to the Halcyonics and the use of the Walker Audio Prelude four step cleaner. The bass has location and no boom or overhang. Digital has much the same character thanks to no errors in reading the digital information and the clarity of teflon caps. Having the dac well isolated on the Halcyonics also makes a major improvement.

Finally, my new H-Cat amp is like no other I have heard and make both live, but that is another thread.

Analog tapes have a from of distortion/compression that is very pleasing - many pros still prefer it. Perhaps the close miked approach to music recording means that analog tape is the optimum medium for taking the sting or harshness out of the music.