@millercarbon - I was not aware of the Stereophile test you mention. Could you tell us the name of the article and whether or not it is available on their website? If you can provide a link that would be great.
It would be a wonderful irony if Stereophile touted the results of a blind test that determined that listeners preferred analog and tubes over digital and solid state. Stereophile has dissed blind testing several times in their publication and has taken a strong editorial position that blind testing of audio equipment is essentially meaningless.
The other thing about this test is that the difference in sound quality could be totally explained by the selection of the individual components. Did they compare top-of-the-line Audio Research gear against a Pioneer receiver? Did they compare a $10,000 turntable/cartridge with a $199 CD player? Was all equipment rated Stereophile Class A? Was the CD a good competent transfer of the master tape? During that time period Stereophile rated several solid state as well as tube components Class A. I've subscribed to Stereophile for decades and I don't remember this test or them taking an editorial position favoring one design philosophy over another. Their individual writers can have strong positions, i.e. Michael Fremer, but the magazine's editorial stance seems to be agnostic. If the results were that conclusive I'm surprised that they didn't refer to this test repeatedly. I would think Fremer would jump all over this test the but maybe he has and I just missed it.
Also, if the test was conducted in the early 90's you won't get much argument from me that the digital signal chain (A/D converters and D/A converters) were not up to the sonic standards of the best turntables and cartridges. Digital today is much better than it was 25 years ago and it would be interesting to see a double blind test that compares current state of the art digital to state of the art analog.
It would be a wonderful irony if Stereophile touted the results of a blind test that determined that listeners preferred analog and tubes over digital and solid state. Stereophile has dissed blind testing several times in their publication and has taken a strong editorial position that blind testing of audio equipment is essentially meaningless.
The other thing about this test is that the difference in sound quality could be totally explained by the selection of the individual components. Did they compare top-of-the-line Audio Research gear against a Pioneer receiver? Did they compare a $10,000 turntable/cartridge with a $199 CD player? Was all equipment rated Stereophile Class A? Was the CD a good competent transfer of the master tape? During that time period Stereophile rated several solid state as well as tube components Class A. I've subscribed to Stereophile for decades and I don't remember this test or them taking an editorial position favoring one design philosophy over another. Their individual writers can have strong positions, i.e. Michael Fremer, but the magazine's editorial stance seems to be agnostic. If the results were that conclusive I'm surprised that they didn't refer to this test repeatedly. I would think Fremer would jump all over this test the but maybe he has and I just missed it.
Also, if the test was conducted in the early 90's you won't get much argument from me that the digital signal chain (A/D converters and D/A converters) were not up to the sonic standards of the best turntables and cartridges. Digital today is much better than it was 25 years ago and it would be interesting to see a double blind test that compares current state of the art digital to state of the art analog.