A very good ENGINEERING explanation of why analog can not be as good as digital..

"So if they prefer lps made from corrupt digital discontnous sampled waveforms, that preference must be based upon something completely unrelated to that waveform."

The cutting head stylus cannot magically appear at the extreme displacement in one direction, disappear, and then reappear at the other extreme; it had to physically travel from point A to point B and at every physical point in between. This is why, even fed an analog signal from a digital filter, vinyl has to sound "like analog." The same goes for the playback stylus and the magnets/coils in the cartridge. The same holds true for the motion of speaker cones and your ear drums.

"In the real world of our listening rooms, not theory, vinyl doesn’t always sound better than digital and vice versa. It’s a matter of a combination of specific recordings, systems and people."


Amen.

@mahler "who cares if the cutting head has to make a continuous path, if the the information contained in that path is from a discontnous waveform?"

Obviously, you don't get it. As I said, it also applies to every tympanic membrane responding to pressure waves in air (microphone, speaker, eardrum) as well. This is the crux of the matter. Think about it.

The sampling rate of lacquer/metal/vinyl is the number of polymer molecules flying past the stylus at the outer edge, ~15 ips, to ~ 8 ips at the inner part of the groove. This is what limits the resolution of the physical wave form on the lacquer/metal/vinyl. That number is astronomical and blows away any conceivable, let alone practical, digital sampling rates.

And then there was MP3, which was a hijacked technology that removed 90% of the information afforded by 16/44 and yet most people couldn't even tell the difference, let alone care. Convenience mattered. Transfer over the internet mattered. Free music mattered. In the end did it damage the music industry? Vinyl is on the rise, albeit a very small fraction of the total sales. CDs will make a comeback too.