ANALOGUE AND DIGITAL SYNERGY


   I’ve enjoyed music listening for most of my 70 years after leaving the womb. Technically inclined, I’ve also enjoyed pursuing the hobby of realistic musical reproduction.

   Out of sheer convenience I longed for the emergence of digital playback  after growing tired of all the work needed to make listening to analogue pleasurable. Then I retired and, with more time on my hands, rediscovered vinyl.

   It took actual listening to convince me that analogue playback, properly done, can in fact sound more realistic than what the digital engineers who deem the medium flawed will admit to. Only my ears helped to reach that conclusion, because the passionate arguments often used by fans on either side of the great digital/analogue divide failed to convince with well-meaning, rational arguments.

    I am so very grateful for a longer life after rediscovering analogue. How else would I have seen how the popularity of high-quality digital streaming makes it so very easy to choose, among the dozens of performances available, those I would like to acquire for the tender, loving care that is required to truly enjoy analogue reproduction.

   I’ve come to realize that one venue compliments the other beautifully. A good digital rig can sound awfully good, and so can an analogue one that benefits from the attention that the medium requires to be at its best. One medium helps to save money and time on the other, each playing its rightful role.

   My CD resolution digital files of Beethoven and Brahms Symphonies, for example, put me in those incredible seats I once had at Orchestra Hall in Chicago. It is without a doubt an enjoyable experience. However, playing their vinyl equivalents brings soul to my memories.

   In fact, there is no need to argue which is the better medium. In reality, neither one is. After all, there is no substitute for sitting on the second row, center at Chicago's Orchestra Hall, practically on top and just a few feet away from the musicians, watching them work in the live medium which is, non-arguably, the superior one.


aprinps
In all my years of searching for the best possible sound from the most compact form factor I could get I was NEVER happy until I combined an all tube integrated amp with latest high resolution Digital Control Center,all rolled up in a compact form factor no bigger than a shoe box...
I will also state for the record that NO WAY IN HELL could I EVER sit & listen to snap,crackle pop from LP’s again & DON"T spout that crap about clean records etc...cause it’s bull pucky!I have sat & tried to listen to my bosses $60,000.00 Linn Vinyl set up complete with record vacuum(LMAO)) & every time all I hear is SCP through the entire record...
freediver: lighten up, man! Back in '79 when I learned of the Sony/Philips collaboration to develop and market an optical digital record and playback system, I said I would throw away my LP's if they could perfect it! No more TT, tonearm, cartridge, phono stage! Eliminate four things and get better sound, right? Well, here we are in 2018 and I'm still buying and listening to LP's! Along with CD's, too! I have six CD players of various makes and years! Yet I find something in the analog sound that connects me more emotionally to the music, beyond the surface noise!

I also collect and use vintage tube gear: amps, preamps, tuners and integrated! A technology from 1907! Thank Lee DeForest for this! Some SS enthusiasts would laugh at this! Yet there's something about the sound from nicely warmed up tube equipment that is very attractive! De gustibus non disputandam est!
The LP is actually quite modern! Invented in 1948 at CBS! And a major advance over the 78! The stereo LP arrived in '58 - along with the cartridge capable of playing them! Goodbye Mono!
Thank you for summarizing my point so succinctly. We are fortunate to have both digital and analogue. Together, they make our systems better. There is no need to make less of something else to make what we believe in better.

Look at nature and relationships. Dependencies help us be at our best. Digital and analogue are no different. However, I can see how arguing otherwise makes for a lively and entertaining, though at times frustrating debate.
 I enjoy both but used to be hard-core analog. Now I realize that the quality of the recording and mastering is paramount. 
 It’s so frustrating to have music you love sound so horrible on your system. Such as meatloaf bat out of hell. You wonder with the artists in the engineers thought! 
 Recently I bought a schiit  Tone control to combat this and it works very very well! Thanks two the Wolfman for promoting it. With the flick of the switch its out of the loop and has no impact on the sound.
That is one area where there is not much room for disagreement. Give the same assignment to three recording engineers and you are likely to end up with different sounds, some bass-heavy, some balanced, some shrill. I wonder if a hearing test is or should be a requirement to work as a recording engineer.

Some of the best classical recordings were done by Mercury in the late 50's and early 60's. The London/DECCA recordings for the Chicago Symphony and Georg Solti are sure to have universally well-balanced sound. Those recordings had the same recording and mastering engineers.