I have a pretty nice digital source in my system. I power it up every once in a while just to make sure it still comes on at all. ;)
It's been a long time.
Long time member, very infrequent poster. Haven't listened to my analog set up in quite a while, almost 2 years since I got engrossed in my digital streaming set up.
So, I decided to listen to 2 quality recorded vinyl albums this afternoon, what a pleasant treat.
There is in my set up, a warm, rounded, sense of bloom to the music, everything else being the same. In digital, I notice a slight sharper edge to the notes, maybe, it's all in my head and confirmation bias. It kind of reminds me why I am drawn to music in the first place.
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The fact you listened to your streaming setup for that long without firing up the vinyl rig tells me you were very content with the sound quality. I suspect what you're hearing now is only difference, give it more time to determine final conclusions. I have quality vinyl and streaming setups, there is difference, but I can no longer judge one as superior to the other. For those like me who've long judged vinyl as the reference for sound quality, getting the clocking optimized is the final part of the secret sauce that made my streaming/digital setup competitive/equal to the analog. Transparency/resolution relatively easy, sense of ease that comes from correct timing is harder to come by, analog has the inherent advantage here, digital needs attention to detail with this. |
If your digital sounds less fleshed out and natural. Then it is the components... streamer and DAC that are the reason. These days it isn't the source medium but the components that determine the ultimate sound. So, I would first look at getting a warmer more natural sounding DAC. If that doesn't pull ahead your digital leg, then upgrade your streamer. I have extremely good analog and digital ends, both of which are detailed, natural and musical. I can switch back and forth and not tell which is which... or do that for a friend and they cannot tell. |
I decided to go all digital streaming several years ago, and I've loved every minute of it. Digital (streaming) has come such a long way over the past 15 years or so. I don't miss my old analog and CD set-ups one bit. As a matter of fact, I strongly believe that the evolution and emergence of high quality, audiophile caliber streaming, via Tidal and Qobuz, is one of the greatest and most brilliant inventions in the history of high end audio music reproduction. The trick is to assemble a streaming audio system which consists very high quality cables and components in order to achieve the very highest level of sound quality out of your digital streaming audio system. Happy listening. |
@kennymacc +1 I never thought of it that way... you are right. It is really that big. It has completely changed the high end. I collected my 2,000 vinyl albums and 2,000 CDs over fifty years... then one day a few years ago my library went from 4,000 albums to well over a million... at the same or better sound quality. Sure was a long time in coming. |
@ghdprentice ....and it's nice to have no real storage issues for a 1M+ media, either... ;)
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