Its not vinyl
I have read 100’s of discussions on the subject of building a streaming digital option for audiophile systems. Everything from the internet connection to the streaming source and then the dac. In my reading through the posts the argument will quickly turn to its not analog, vinyl is better, on the anti streaming side and then on the pro streaming side posters will fed the argument with its almost as good as my phono stage, sounds better than analog. This will even hold true within the dac manufactures and dac owners who will refer to their dac sound as analog sounding or just like phono. I think this is most referenced in the R2R dac category. I started a discussion on the new Gustard R26 which is a discrete R2R ladder dac. Right away I was confronted with “why do you want to spend the money to replace your phono analog end that you already have and sounds great”? I Replied with the usual “phono does sound better, even a $30,000 dac will never beat analog and all the other analog vs digital talking points”. Then it hit me that we have been arguing this wrong all this time. The argument should be that the quest in putting together a top notch streaming digital setup is not a quest to beat analog or beat phono. The quest and objective is to achieve a “ less digital sound”. We all know that sharp, bright razor blades in my bleeding ears sterile digital sound, that will bring in-listener fatigue and quickly want you turning off the music. What I am reiterating here is that the quest the cost and the journey in digital is not to beat analog it is to beat “digital”.
Very few have experienced both best of best digital and analog in a single system, @mikelavigne being one of few. His experience and preferences speak for themselves. And then take most of the rest, varying preferences speak loudly, that should tell you both can be entirely satisfying.
I for one don't dwell on the differences, I only care about how the music engages me, both do that, although my digital presently superior transparency/resolution. |
Well, I do understand loving the packaging and art of vinyl, have over 3500 lps at this point. but we're talking about sound quality here. I'm not looking at art when I'm entirely engaged with listening, and the point is digital can totally engage you.
@baylinor +++ One slight difference, I'm hearing more convergence of the two as my digital streaming chain continues to improve. Timing has major impact on digital, as jitter decreases, sense of ease, relaxing into the music takes over, closing in on my analog here, and this with delta sigma dac. |
