When is digital going to get the soul of music?

Alex, I'm sure there are many great TTs but in my small world it often resembles discussion about performance of Rolls-Royce vs. Bentley. For the money I could spend on decent TT I upgraded speakers from average to great but could also upgrade main amp or DAC. LP music selection is very poor especially with less popular genres (World Music, Indian Classical) therefore my main system will always be digital. I will include TT as soon as I get best speakers and amp money can buy and will still have money to spend. Perhaps for all this to happen I would have to win the Lotto or kill my wife.

I would like to describe my experiences the last several days. I am not bragging about my system, but I think I have the best sound that I have had in nearly 50 years at this. My digital uses an Apple Powerbook Pro running Pure Music on Hog and memory modes and my dacs are the Weiss Dac202 or the H-Cat dac. My vinyl is a Bergman Sindre with the Ortofon A-90 cartridge tracking at 2.00 grams and a H-Cat phono stage. I know few here know the H-Cat stuff, but I find it very resolving.

Last night I compared Frank Sinatra and Count Basie at the Sands using the original vinyl release and the server with the source disc being a SHM release to the hard drive.

I heard a very different music performance. The vinyl is very pleasing with Sinatra sounding very real and smooth. The audience and band are present but somewhat vaguely located in the background. It was very listenable. The digital on the H-Cat dac was very fast and dynamic with the audience quite precisely located and at some points in the performance there was an edge to his voice that might be mike overload or a true edge in his 50 year old voice. This was present with both dacs. Generally, the digital performance sounded more like being there, but at others it sounded strained and discontinuous. This also was true using the Weiss 202 which had 24 bits rather than the 16 of the H-Cat. The Weiss gives a somewhat more distant perspective but otherwise had the same limitations.

I guess that my conclusion is that I can live with either, that both have strong points, that higher definition of backgrounds is better in digital as well as dynamics, that digital sounds piecy, as though it is a puzzle put together. Perhaps, were I to have this recording in 192/24 HD, it might be better. I don't expect ever to have HD resolution on all of my music, however.

So what will I listen to? Well, I have only about a 10-20% overlap in my music, so it will somewhat depend on what music I want to listen too. There is no question that digital on a server is the most convenient, but I will never give up on vinyl for listenability and wholeness.

Tbg,

Last night I compared Frank Sinatra and Count Basie at the Sands using the original vinyl release and the server with the source disc being a SHM release to the hard drive.

While I am sure that Sinatra/Basie at the Sands is a good sounding recording, I'd suggest evaluating Analog vs. Digital using something like this: Bassface Trio Plays Gershwin

Best,
Alex Peychev

Kijanki,

I understand! This was a good decision!

Please don't kill her, she only needs plastic surgery; cut all her credit/debit cards. :-)

Best,
Alex Peychev

"plastic surgery; cut all her credit/debit cards."

I like that!

Not the kind of PS that most wives might find appealing though.....