How Good Can Digital Get?

Lazarus28:
Peace and happy listening. By the way, your username has an abstract-cool kind of thing going on. Mine is unimaginatively composed of my last name and initials. Now that maybe is something to analyze. :)

The other day I was listening to some speakers at my favorite audio shop. This was through 50K worth of electronics, including the 20K Linn CD 12. Although I was supposed to be paying attention to speakers, the only thing that kept running through my mind was "This sounds good, but I can't wait to get home and listen to some vinyl." When the source was changed from the CD 12 to an LP 12 turntable (w/ Lingo power supply and Ekos tonearm), I wanted to stay were I was for the rest of the afternoon. I know this is hardly a technically sophisticated statement in response to your question, but music is about emotional and intellectual involvement, and hi-fi is only relevant in so far as it advances the quality of that involvement. So far, nothing does this as well as vinyl.

I am not a snob on the subject, and really enjoy my CD player. Digital is certainly easier and more robust to work with, and I am delighted with the way digital continues to improve. But I do not think it is a realistic possibility that redbook will ever equal quality analog. SACD is better, but still not really that close if you are looking for the most you can get out of your hi-fi.

If the market place were more sensitive to sonic quality, some day some digital format would very possibly even surpass vinyl – certainly we have learned in the last 20 plus years not to under-estimate what can be accomplished with this technology. But in the MP3 satisfied marketplace we live in, I don't see this happening any time soon. Those of us who care deeply about high quality music reproduction are too few in number to drive the market in the necessary ways.

Lazarus28:
Well, I’m a psychiatrist, so I suppose I should never object to someone introducing the possibility of psychology influencing audio perceptions, which it of course does. But I must say, having some basic understanding of my own inner workings, your explanation of my experience the other day doesn’t resonate at all. The fact is that what I heard initially that day sounded good, but it improved greatly once the change was made to vinyl (on an excellent turntable, tonearm, etc.). It is true I knew that this would happen, but not from some irrational attachment to vinyl, but from repeated past experience. I would be quite frankly surprised if anyone posting here could not have easily heard the improvement in the room that day – it was not subtle.

I know there are many overly zealous vinyl advocates, but I don’t feel comfortable in that camp. As I said, I really enjoy my CD player, and I have no problem with someone preferring digital. In fact, my wife strongly does, though I must say even she thinks good vinyl sounds substantially better. She just isn’t convinced that the difference is worth the effort and inconvenience. I think that is a reasonable position - just not one that I share.