When is digital going to get the soul of music?

Tvad, actually the answer IS all 3. What makes it even more bizarre is that you can pick up the total system of someone who says answer 1, plunk it down, absolutely perfectly transported and setup identically in every way, matching room treatments, etc, in the home of someone who says answer 2, and the answer for this new setup CAN still be 2, even for the original owner if he were to visit the new location of his former system.

Why, because the house itself and every part of its environment is part of the system also! This is what can make this whole process of getting things right so very, very hard ...

Frank

Frank - you're right about the house. Unfortunately it is the most expensive part of any audio system. With much less than perfect room, varying quality of the recordings, synergy of all components and taste/preference of the listener, discussing if best digital is as good as best analog (on even Tuesdays) is strictly academic, at least to me.

One thing I know - wise man told me once "Don't have a cow, man" so I sold my TT.

Kijanki, when I said house I did not mean just the listening room, that's why I specifically said "every part of its environment" -- gee, I think the factory down the road just finished for the day; hmmm, I wonder if Cathy has her computer on in her bedroom; man, another one of those steamy, humid days -- see what I mean. Frankly, when a system is REALLY working properly, the listening room is totally irrelevant: if you had a real string quartet playing in that room, would it "not work" because you didn't have the right room bits sorted out ... ?

As regards synergy, see my comment earlier.

Finally, I have as much respect for vinyl as digital: I have heard stunning LP playback, and truly appalling sound coming from a quarter of a million dollars worth of such gear, supposedly optimised and tweaked!

Frank

Kijanki,

One thing I know - wise man told me once "Don't have a cow, man" so I sold my TT.

Good move! I wish you could hear what Dynavector XV-1s can do with specially designed/tuned phonostage for it. Boy, I just love those Alnico magnets. :-)

Best,
Alex Peychev

My listening room was built more than a 100 years ago. Showing good foresight, they built my listening room with perfection in mind. The room is big and high, and with a symmetrical speaker wall.

So, without giving further ado, the correct answer is.......

No. 1