Does Age Matter?

It’s having a set of ears that matters, for anyone who can hear correctly can hear that analog is far superior to digital.

The relative superiority of vinyl over digital or of digital over vinyl, has nothing to do with "taste" or "hearing incapacity"...

The relative superiority of one or the other is function of the audio system GENERIC design potentials and their SPECIFIC concrete implementations... This 2 factors explain all....

No need for "taste" which is only an ennobled and idealized way to speak about our habits....

No need to accuse others to be half-deaf...No ears are structurally the same and no ears are historically constructed by the same listening habits...

Specific implementation of ANY generic designed piece of electronic occur in the 3 main working concrete dimensions of any audio system( an embedding of the audio system in my vocabulary) :
The mechanical dimension(vibrations and resonances), the noise floor of the electrical grid of the house/room/system, and last the acoustical concrete settings of the room....

Then, the relative superiority alleged to one or the other will manifest itself and occur in these indefinite variable situations....

Then it is IMPOSSIBLE to compare the 2 in so many different environments...





But how, you can ask, if we ourself compare for ourself the vinyl and the analog component in the same embeddings with the same pieces of electronic components except for the turntable and dac ?




Four other factors will stay and play and will relativize the alleged superiority of one or the other  :

1-The difference in the structural organization of the ears, and by that i means 2 healthy ears process differently the sound and interpret it differently, because of their different listening histories and habits....

2- The difference between one choice of turntable among many possible, versus the difference between one dac among many possible choices...This fact will play a MAJOR role....

3- The important complementarity or his absence between the chosen components , by that i means the specific interaction of a chosen turntable with a specific amplifier among many possible, and same thing with the dac interacting with a specific amplifier.... For example someone with another amplifier in the same room could conclude with a contrary opinion about digital and vinyl....Then even ourself could change our experience changing our amplifier....

4-I will not add the nature of the support format, master vinyl or not and the quality of the digital files...I suppose those who would made a strict comparison will take care about that... But...... 😁

Then no one can conclude ABSOLUTELY for all of us that digital win over vinyl or the opposite....One can conclude for himself only and without never knowing if this victory is an absolute fact...






Last but mot least , there is no original live event which is the "source" of a faithful recording....All recording processes are choices between choices, each time with a trade-off...

Then "reproduction" of this "original" live event would be more objectively qualified by the term RECREATION...

One acoustical event very difficult to "record" is timbre....Even in the case of only a solo live instrumental event....

Acoustical recreation of the musical timbre of an instrument ask for the ACOUSTICAL setting dimension of your room to be recreated completely....The delivery of the acoustical information of the live original event is already partial and never perfect and complete... it is your room acoustical informative or obstructive settings that will compensate... Because timbre perception need more than the transmission of an always incomplete information signals accuracy , this perception occur in the real concrete time synchronization of your room...

Your audio system recreate timbre with the help of your specific room, they do not reproduce it like it was because the information is anyway incomplete....

Acoustically timbre is not only pure musical tone... Timbre is tone+ the acoustical property of the material instrument +timing between the room and this envelope of the tone ....Your room cannot be the original room...Recreation can be, perfect reproduction cannot be....

The timbre perception and evaluation of the soloist instrument which has been specifically and with a partial trade-off recorded, reflecting the choices of the recording engineer, will be recreated in YOUR room acoustical setting...

This recreation is not only dependent from the choices and trade-off in each audio system but also with the choices in your embedding acoustical dimension, in your room and for your ears....

All that to say that the acoustic of a room will impact way more the S.Q. than our choosen obsession with turntable or digital.....😁

Sorry....





«Gosh! It is simple like an equation but it is written in chinese»-Groucho Marx

Perhaps i have no nostalgia....I understand when people prefer the analog sound even if my digital sound for me on par...

😊

My best and apology for my intrusion....

How about the ritual of being able to listen 2 hours of music, contemplating infinity in the dark , without having the trouble to dust the vinyl, and turn it like a slave at all 25 minutes...Anticipating to do so after 20 minutes and calling that pure joy is out of my world...

How about the ritual of listening all quartets of Haydn for 5 hours in the background traveling in your mind and dreams? Am i the only one who listen music attentively, but very often as background for my soul also? Ok i am old and i have plenty of time to listen to 12 continuous hours of organ music without bother myself to think about changing face of vinyl like under the spell of a robotical habit...Not a problem tough when someone listen 2 or 3 tunes and decided to go with another vinyl at each 15 minutes exploring short pieces...I dont do that...

I will understand if someone say to me that analog sound better no problem , i accept that completely and trust him completely because the recreation of TIMBRE is a pure human ears phenomenon....Then i will understand someone who will say to me that this 25 minutes of work for changing the vinyl’s face is only a small price to pay for a better sound....But dont say that you miss that if you think about going digital....😁

But the non sense habits has no meaning except for the conditioned decades old mania in a compulsive mind...Sorry....

I apologize if i offend someone, i speak my mind without back thinking....😌

Anyway, can you imagine that at the age of 70 you are not able to chat with 95 y.o. person here (to feel what I’m feeling). At this age it’s too late to arguing about something, people will never change their opinion.

Not at all.... I am ready to change anything in my beliefs.... Not so much in my experience.... For sure the frontiers between these 2 is not clear but i was always open mind to any sound clear and good arguments, indices, new elements....

More than that if your beliefs are not permeated by your own doubting machine you are insecure in your vulnerable fortress, the ennemy can cut your water and you are waiting in a siege without end...Or you are proud, strong, and blind to all the world...

The city of my beliefs is open to all exhange with the world, and no doubts or no others faith has crossed the city of my soul without making me think...

I reign without fear over my realm with no blinding proudness....

Am I old? I prefer to speak to young people under 40 and i am 70 in few months....Then something in what you say must be true...

Old people who stick to their belief or ideas, do that by habits most of the times not because they look fresh for some truth....I stick also to my idea but i keep an open mind reading, conversing like at 20 but with more ressources indeed...

Personally, I think this argument over sound quality is silly as it is frightfully subjective. Do we argue about food preferences?

You are right the audiophile experience is not so much about REPRODUCING some original live event lost in the many choices of the recording engineer anyway, it is to RECREATE the natural TIMBRE musical experience in the best acoustical room possible, and with the best embedded system possible with analog or /and digital....Evaluation of acoustical and musical TIMBRE is subjective experience....

By the way TIMBRE is not only a pure musical phenomena it is also an acoustical phenomena, which is to say thet the perception of timbre by the recording engineer will determine his mutiple microphones choices and locations, same thing for the mixing process; and at the end it is your choices about the rightful embeddings of your audio system, and not only the choice of the format and system, that will make you able to evaluate and experience the perception of timbre....

You are right but it is not only subjective, the objective part is the way and methods to implement or install the right solutions that will be asked by the system, the room and the house, mechanically, electrically, and acoustically....

I know that you dont read my post anymore 😁 but for the sake of this interesting question i will answer:

I am 69 and i prefer digital, and love  music more than sound, and because of my way of embedding my audio system, because some dac are very good, because 10,000 vinyl makes no sense in a small house, because i hate all manipulation at each 30 minutes, and i hate fetichism of little object, i stick to digital for 30 years now but enjoy it really only with my good dac and right embeddings of it for the last 2 years...

Happy New Year...