Rediscovering records

@lewm 

I’m fine with “classical”. Like “pornography”, I can’t define it

Well, I'm not fine with "classical" because it covers two concepts:  the classical era in Western music, most of which I don't like; and its much broader use to cover Western art music, for want of a better term.  So I have to say I mainly listen to classical music, even though that is not strictly true.

It does seem to me that there are two distinct subspecies of Audiophile, with nearly diametrically opposed goals!  Simple terms to distinguish them would seem helpful and long and short are the best I can come up with at the moment!

Not sure why the argument here over what constitutes Classical Music.  I side with Lew   

The interesting question here is whether the sound of a large orchestra is equally reproduced by digital or analog.  I prefer digital for all my listening, but I particularly think it pays benefits here.  Reducing the noise floor and expanding the dynamic range helped me appreciate all kinds of low level information in the symphonies of Mahler and Shostakovich.  It helps sort out the textures in Brahms and Schumann.

To follow up on my last post while I prefer digital, great sound is perfectly obtainable from an analog system.  I do think, as @rvpiano seems to be saying, that in order to get the best analog you need to spend resources.  A $10K streamer will generally outperform a $3K streamer, but the latter gets much better results than a $3 K analog system.  The analog systems that I’ve heard that really impress me are all north of 10K

@mahler123 

i agree.  In the majority of cases, digital outperforms analog with orchestra.  However, in a good quality pressing, a record can be at least as good if not sometimes better.

Mahler (the real one) didn’t do digital.

l do actually agree totally with the OP and “get” what he is saying. Since first buying records in the late 60s, l have revisited them over the last 60 years. Some l kept only because they were borderline, others because they were part of a broader completist collection value. 
l like Ennio Morricone’s early avant-garde soundtracks that on the whole had a real mix of styles. I find today with better equipment l have come to enjoy them more. What was before a hard listen and a challenge due to the complexity of the compositions, they often now reveal more character and colour. Of course the recordings come across cleaner and clearer, but the ones before that were such a challenge to listen to are now more enjoyable.
 

Digital in what ever form…A distraction, or is it relevant? Whatever the talk about streaming or digital, such comments normally by nature just add bias clutter, and on the face of it do not answer the subject posted, “Rediscovering records”