Its not vinyl


I have read 100’s of discussions on the subject of building a streaming digital option for audiophile systems. Everything from the internet connection to the streaming source and then the dac. In my reading through the posts the argument will quickly turn to its not analog, vinyl is better, on the anti streaming side and then on the pro streaming side posters will fed the argument with its almost as good as my phono stage, sounds better than analog. This will even hold true within the dac manufactures and dac owners who will refer to their dac sound as analog sounding or just like phono. I think this is most referenced in the R2R dac category. I started a discussion on the new Gustard R26 which is a discrete R2R ladder dac. Right away I was confronted with “why do you want to spend the money to replace your phono analog end that you already have and sounds great”?  I  Replied with the usual “phono does sound better, even a $30,000 dac will never beat analog and all the other analog vs digital talking points”. Then it hit me that we have been arguing this wrong all this time. The argument should be that the quest in putting together a top notch streaming digital setup is not a quest to beat analog or beat phono. The quest and objective is to achieve a “ less digital sound”. We all know that sharp, bright  razor blades in my bleeding ears sterile digital sound, that will bring in-listener fatigue and quickly want you turning off the music. What I am reiterating here is that the quest the cost and the journey in digital is not to beat analog it is to beat “digital”.

sgreg1

I think that if you are using both streaming and vinyl as sources it’s not that one needs to sound better than, or as good as, the other. Both just  need to sound good enough so that you listen to them both.

@jond 

 

+1… which for me is virtually the same. Digital came up short for 38 of the last 40 years for me.

When I saw the thread heading, I thought "Finally, someone is pointing out that LP's are not made of vinyl." I know it's a petty distinction---perhaps even just a matter of semantics, but LP's are PVC (Poly Vinyl Chloride), not vinyl. Vinyl was what grandmas had on their sofas in the old days. Not that I think people should talk about their new Poly Vinyl Chloride acquisitions. ;-)

I'd never be able to tell if analog or digital sounds better. But I know they are different. And unless a company develops a "vinyl sound" switch on their amp (I am sure they have), they will always be different.