2. analog
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More convinced of analog than ever

Wednesday night I went to my local high end shop's "Music Matters" open house, which featured six meticulously set up listening rooms highlighting the best and brightest offerings from Wilson, Transparent, Audio Research, Ayre, Magnepan, Peachtree, B&W, Classe, Rotel, etc., with factory reps to introduce their products and innovations.

There were unmistakable improvements in reproduction of redbook CD, with jitter reduced to near zero, and holographic reproduction of images, soundstages, and the minute signals that indicate instrument resonance and hall ambience.

And yet... and yet... when the demos shifted from redbook to the new downloadable hi-rez digital formats in 24/88.2 and 24/96, there was an unmistakable jump in resolution around the edges of the notes, of sounds swelling, resonating, and decaying, of greater verisimilitude.

But compared to the turntable demos, I'd say the 24-bit digital got me about 80% there, whereas LP playback closed the gap completely. Once the LPs started spinning, there was a collective relaxed "aaaahhh" that went through the audience. It wasn't because of dynamic compression. Far from it, the Ayre prototype turntable was strikingly dynamic with a subterranean noise floor.

The sense of ease and relaxation I attribute to a sudden drop in listener fatigue. The LP-source music had so much more of what makes music musical. We didn't have to work nearly as hard to rectify the ear-brain connection as with even the best of 24-bit digital, which was still significantly better than redbook. The redbook playback always reminded me that I was listening to "hi-fi," even when played through multi-thousand dollar players from ARC and Ayre.

Even my local Brit-oriented Rega/Naim dealer asserts that the latest CD players rival or exceed LP playback.

I say nay.

What say you?
johnnyb53

Showing 1 response by chadeffect

chadeffect
586 posts
 
I wonder when this debate will finally die? I am guessing soon.

Digital is getting better almost every year. Not to say analogue has not got better too, but at this rate analogue will be confined to the history books quite soon with only the most stubborn of old audiophiles staying with it.

Name anyone under the age of 25 who is interested in a TT. The ipod generation will laugh at you with your room full of LPs or think it quaint.
And while the analogue brigade will laugh at the ipod generation they wont be laughing for long. Its called progress. All this stuff will trickle down into 1 chip that costs nothing and has staggering sound quality. Downloads will be uncompressed at the sample rate it was recorded at. None of the dithering to 44.1k and so on.

We have reached a point where sonically all the analogue colorations you like can be modeled anyway in the digital domain. The latest offerings in the pro world are amazing. The control is precise and totally transparent.

I dont understand why it seems you are either for digital or analogue. Who cares? If it sounds good it sounds good.

Of course I understand toys for the boys, but surely we all want music to be played back with the highest possible life like quality, with no hassles, and on demand. The rest is BS and posturing.
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