I could not hear a difference between Analog and digital...... what gives ?

OP - thanks for this post. I've heard the same thing and here's a few comments from my experience.

I could always hear a significant difference between vinyl and digital before I bought a Hana SL. Now my vinyl and digital sound very similar, if not the same. The Hana has a particularly flat frequency response which is why I bought it.

Phono cartridges are notorious for having a lumpy frequency response with many of them having a several dB tilt in the high frequencies. If a particular cartridge compliments other aspects of your system you will prefer analog over digital. For decades, audiophiles have used cartridges to tune the frequency response of their systems. CD players and DACs, on the other hand, all have a ruler-flat frequency response.

I never was able to hear the kind of blanket digital nastiness described by people like Fremer. Sure, some early digital recordings were terrible but that was the fault of the recording or the digital transfer from the analog master. There were plenty of early CDs that sounded great, at least to my ears.

I don't accept the idea that because you're old you can't hear differrences in gear. Most of us in this hobby are geezers. I think that most people who make broad general statements about how formats sound, or pontificate on the subtle differences between similar gear have never really attempted to do a controlled listening test to check their beliefs.

Modern DACs and players have converged to sound nearly identical. I have not seen a double blind ABX test that shows that modern DACS sound different. I have two DACs, two transports, a CD player, and an SACD player in my system, and I have carefully listened for differences on repeated occassions. If they are not identical then they are very, very, close. I could live with any of them.

The fact that my analog and digital rig sound so similar is interesting because the retail value of my CD transport (Jay's CD3 MkIII) and my DAC (Berkeley Alpha Reference II MQA with Alpha USB) is about $24,000 and my turntable is a 90's vintage Denon DP 47F with a Hana SL cartridge running through a Krell phono preamp - total value of about $4,000. I should add that I also have a Sweet Vinyl SC2 Plus ($3800) that removes the ticks and pops because I've always hated that aspect of vinyl. The biggest reason that I was an early CD adopter was because I found  vinyl surface-noise so distracting.

I still buy vinyl and I play records regularly. Sometimes I'm just in the mood to play a record and marvel at how this ancient technology can sound so good. But mostly I play CDs for the convenience and the quiet noise floor.

FWIW, I've done careful listening comparisons on several titles between Qobuz and the corresponding CD version (running through the same DAC) and I can't hear the difference. I figure that if the stream sounds identical to my CD rig that's as good as it's going to get. I see no reason to stress about digital cables, fancy switches, or a 5 figure streamer.

@8th-note 

Thanks for documenting your experiences.    It is much appreciated. Yup, your experiences are similar to mine.  My new updated Streaming front end with Qobuz sounds as good as my CDs & SACDs with comparable resolution.  My Analog setup can sound different from my Digital, but, I have just found an example described in this thread where they both sound the same...  So, the big question I am trying to answer is will a new upgraded DAC really improve my digital system in my large room with my current tube preamp, tube amps, & speakers which I plan to keep for the long haul ?

I prefer digital.  Vinyl can sound very good when properly done.

DCC CD’s sound amazing. I have Joni Mitchell’s Blue on DCC Gold CD and a HD copy from HD Tracks. I prefer the DCC copy that I ripped to my NAS in AIFF

@8th-note your Hana SL is great but the next level Hana ML with micro line stylus reduces the surface noise even further. It’s very quiet unless you’re dealing with a beat up record or a ton of static.