Article: "Spin Me Round: Why Vinyl is Better Than Digital"

Read yesterday an artical where a professional HiRes suporter argues against MQA. Even within the digital domain there is a cut and thrust between people. The same goes on within the analoge community. There is no proof on either side. Best to enjoy what one likes in whatever format it comes.

It is unquestionable that MQA alters the sound, and that includes in the audio band. It forces a filter type on the DAC chain that many find unnatural, but music dependent could be beneficial (to some).

They start with the ignorant notion that "pre-ringing" is bad. If you know what "pre-ringing" is, you will know what this is not a sound theory, and that square waves don't happen in audio.  Then they make the bold almost univeral claim that audio is impacted by a ton of 20KHz bessel filters are stacked in a series.  Well maybe that was a bit common 30+ years ago, but not recently, and even then that really was not true.  So they claim their filter recreates the leading edge of transients. Only problem is, once the information is gone, it is gone. Unless you know exactly the signal chain that arrived at that signal, you can't reverse it. How do you know intentional equalization versus unintentional band limiting?  And at the end of it all, the engineers working on the recording are equalizing anyway for the end result.

Dear audio2design,
unfortunately I do not understand the theory as deep as you. And my knowledge of the english language does not help in this respect:-) So I could not follow in detail about the "pre-ringing". I thought it does or did exist. And I thought it is bad, as it does not occur in natural.
But again what additional I can extract from your very profound answer is my idea that digital music by many in the industry is too much understood as belonging to a computer domain as you wrote:

Unless you know exactly the signal chain that arrived at that signal, you can’t reverse it.

It is so easy to do manipulation, 0s and 1s are exactly build for this, but so hard to understand what this implies. Therefore like in the analog domain there are so many differnent ideas what is best. So many people who defend one idea against the others. Well I keep talking now the same thing over and over :-)

@wuwulf ,

"Even within the digital domain there is a cut and thrust between people. The same goes on within the analoge community."


Yes, and ultimately it usually comes down to a question of economics.

Virtually every expert agreed that SACD and DVD Audio were theoretically superior to Redbook CD but the market didn't.

Ditto for Betamax over VHS.


"Best to enjoy what one likes in whatever format it comes."

Yes, even if that comes with a certain amount of uncertainty of wondering whether there's other better options out there.

Unfortunately our time is finite.

@wuwulf , To answer your question, going in and out a digital at 24/192 is invisible. But, after my music starts out in the digital domain on my computers hard drive. So, there is only one step for half my collection. All modern music with few exceptions is recorded and processed digitally. Then the question becomes does music that is recorded digitally but provided analog in PVC still sound as good as music that remains digitized until the very end of the chain. I personally think that is a silly argument to have.
The difference in imaging when I bypass the processor is obvious to everybody. The difference in going back and forth between analog and 24/192 is not noticeable by anyone. I would think that answers your question. It is unfortunate that more audiophile will not share in this experience. They are just digital phobic and anything I can say about the subject apparently means nothing. Their loss.
Another interesting subject is that because I know what the sound of a perfectly flat system is I can listen to other systems and know right away where they are off.  I know of only one system that was close. In most cases they will be too bright with boosted mid bass and no real low end below 100 Hz.