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 2 responses by kennythekey

kennythekey
580 posts
 
When I first heard about a consumer-available CD player back in 1985 under the Kyocera name I bought it...there were others but the same machine...it was $900 or so. I was so excited at first, but after awhile I too got fatigued.

I don't think it's about digital advancements making equipment sound better...and it's now scary-better because my Kyocera sucked and digital has leap-frogged forward since then.

Today, well engineered analog and digital systems can sound fantastic. Hell, I've got a CD Transport and Processer combo that cost as much as my analog front end. Some say that analog has the edge, while others disagree.

Lets put the sonics aside momentarily. When I listen to vinyl, like Johnyb53 experienced with at the demo, I feel more relaxed and I can keep on listening until my wife starts yelling. I'm happy...my feet are tapping. However, I still get fatigued from digital sources and I find myself putting something else on....then something else again. Why is that?

Okay...maybe it's because you have to get off of your butt and deal with the LP, that makes you keep listening to the end of the album side. Well...I think it's because as humans we're analog...our ear drums vibrate...like the stylus...like the transducer...those glowing tubes are just natural...but not like anything digital. When we're all Cylons that will all change...until then...

If you want to get into the groove...you got to play the groove.
kennythekey
580 posts
 
I agree with Chadeffect, there's no stoppimg progress and the age of vinyl will probably be remembered as a bizarre form of musical reproduction to be forgotten.

For those of you who want the highest possible life like quality, no hassles, and on demand, I suggest that you get off the vinyl bandwagon even if you think for right now that it has a slight edge over digital. Why?

You're slowing down the progress of digital. Manufacturer's are throwing much of their R&D at analog, building turntables like never before...they're even saying that now is the Golden Age of Vinyl.

We've become the underground resistance against the advancement of digital fullfillment...and I've already had to wait a quarter century without satisfaction!

For the rest of us...who enjoy flipping over vinyl and may have a different take about quality of life and progress, I'll tell you that I'm building a new analog front end because that sounds better to me right now...today. It will most likely be my last analog system. While working on my project my daughters 17 and 20 are intrigued. I bought both of them IPods for Christmas and they download and love music. Their music...their world.

I tell my youngest, that you have to wait till one side is over and then get up and flip it to the other side. She says, "I know Dad...hah...hah." We go out to lunch in her car with her IPod, and she's flipping from one song to the next and most songs she never gets to the end. She tells me that she only downloads songs that she likes??? I tell her that with an LP, since there's no remote, you're kinda forced to listen to all of the songs. Maybe, the artist intended you to do so, or maybe the songs tell a story.

That evening, I'm listening to my system and she comes home. I say, "check this out," and put on The Guitar Artistry of Charlie Byrd on my old SOTA which I had put away for my new front end but dug out on purpose. We listened to the whole thing...she loved it.

All I know, is since I started with my new front-end project, I'm spending more time with my under 25 daughters. That's not BS.
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