Someone could argue, but its very much about the mastering....
https://www.soundonsound.com/sound-advice/q-how-does-mastering-differ-vinyl-and-digital-releases
The character of analog and digital
Having just obtained some high quality analogue components, I want make some comments on the character of both analog and digital.
First of all it’s very difficult to speak of analog in general. Records vary widely (indeed wildly) in sonic character and quality. Digital recordings are much more uniform. When you play a digital file you more or less know what your getting. Of course some sound better than others, but there is a consistency of character. With records, it’s the Wild West. Variation in SQ and character are rampant.
Therefore it becomes very difficult to make generalizations on which categorically sounds better.
Showing 3 responses by alexatpos
@rvpiano It is very pointless to 'discuss' own preferncies (not directed to you) if one is not familiar with process. Seems nobody here reads the words of people who are actually responsable for the actual sound of some recording or format, like Steve Hofman in post that I ve linked before, above, or again, here, from another 'master' Kevin Grey.Here are some quotes from him as well: … I never limit jazz or classical stuff. I’m so turned off by today’s compression just to make everything sound the same volume on itunes.... … Well there is a difference cutting for the audiophile market and the mass market. I have to take precautions on non audiophile stuff to make sure it will track on lesser systems. I use a limiter/compressor very very occasionally. Every so often vocal peaks get out of hand in rock and pop stuff and it id preferable to do a couple db of limiting instead of turning the whole song down... from sterophile
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@tomic601 , @david_ten , @audphile1 in case and if 'all things should be equal' (from reproduction side of things, if that is possible at all) than everything comes down to the mastering. Judging by what people who are actually doing the masterings have to say (will post this again) it seems that their consensus is on analog side. The rest is all about our personal preferencies which are caused by quality of our system, analog or digital and because of it that the 'discussion' is pointless. Perhaps if the discussion is about the principles of analog or digital domain, we might have something to discuss. Without knowing how 'the original source' and consequently all other versions of some recording sound, we all, in fact, make our judgments by listening final product (analog or digital) which has been heavily 'manipulated' and has little to do with inherent quality of some format, but more of 'craft' of the person who made it
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