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.
@holmz I have yet to install any of this into system, waiting on the Thoress to arrive later this week.
Was lowering sibilance a good thing for you, or did it darken things up excessively? I did see one individual had azimuth issues with his example, seems his Korf was incorrectly manufactured, free replacement corrected this. Other than this I've only heard good things about the headshell. |
The “horse blanket covering the speaker” descriptions always seem like a great analogy. My analogy is that some songs were hissing like a pentacostal revival with the snakes. Now the snakes are largely gone like St. Himself, to be sure, to be sure, chased the snakes from the land. |
Hi Folks, I fear will really ruffle a few feathers with this post - as a European now living in Australia ( some unkind people call Australians- " Americans in training"), I have , perhaps a different view to contrast with the strongly Americo-centic views on AudioGon. Digital vs Analog; yes there is a difference, but the devil is always in the detail. Here is Digital vs Analog 101: Years ago records were produced as AAA recordings: Analog recording, Analog Editing and Analog Mastering ( cutting the groove), using Analog 24 track Tape Recorders. Most modern Vinyl is DDD: Digital recording, Digital Editing and Digital Mastering, so when Digital gets into the recording chain all of the clarity and subtlety of True Analog is lost due the Digital Sampling used. Most CD/ Streaming is DDD: Digital recording, Digital Editing and Digital Mastering, so when Digital gets into the recording chain all of the clarity and subtlety of True Analog is lost due the Digital Sampling used. But here is the Devil detail; There is much more variation between Analog recordings than Digital Recordings - it was much more difficult to make good Analog recordings than good Digital Recordings. To see this search out early 1970's Vinyl and listen to LP's like: Parachute - The Pretty Things Blood on the Tracks - Bob Dylan 1st Album - America Abraxas - Santana Red - King Crimson Time and a Word - Yes In Analog days the Engineer had much more control, now you can make Digital Recordings on your iPhone. A friend of mine has a harsh comment on what happens today: "My generation put a man on the moon, yours invented the selfie stick". To finish - I am staggered by the $sums people spend to get good Hi-Fi ( sorry High End in Yank). Just pick good kit like Denon, Yamaha, many British Amps,good speakers like Mordaunt- Short, Tannoy, Wharfedale, B&W etc. You don't need 0% Oxygen cables, just good thick wire. If you can't set up your system correctly then it is pointless spending $1000's on kit. For Vinyl you need to understand Cartridge off-set, Bias, Set up with protractors and Hi-Fi News Vinyl, Input Capacitance of cables and Amp. If you find god Analog Vinyl it will give you the best sound you ave ever heard, Digital is more consistant, but always has a metallic edge, a bit like Bostonians!!!! Hope this help to put things in perspective. Brian
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In regard to digital having more uniform sound. First off, this not true, top echelon digital equipment will expose quite wide disparities. I have wide variety of digital recordings available to me, from late 80's cd rips to post 2000 cd rips and latest high res streams. There is absolutely huge gap between those rips to later era cd rips and best quality streams.
Now, I will agree there is large differential between vinyl, I have well over 3k albums, tons of 50's-80's recordings, fair amount post 2000's. 50's, 60's era have most consistent high quality sound IMO. Starting with 70's much more multi tracking, solid state in recording studio equals much greater variability, and what sounds like records cut from 2nd, 3rd generation masters, some real crap from this era.
I'd also add less variability with modern digital is due to the remastering that's been done. I can directly compare some of this crappy 70's era vinyl to remastered streams and the streams sound much better. The remastering craze has greatly benefited digital, and newer AD converters are far superior to previous generations of these converters.
And this doesn't mean there isn't still pretty large variation with modern digital, less variability comes from the fact the weaker recordings now sound much better lessening the gap from worst to best.
Top flight digital' resolving capabilities will expose the finest differentials, homogenized digital sound is symptom of digital setup lacking resolution, noise and jitter levels need attending to. |
@sns, +1, digital doesn’t have the euphonic distortions typical of vinyl but can sound harsh when poorly implemented. I’d also generally recommend valve amplification with digital with its more benign higher harmonics distortions compared to silicon. Intrigued, though with progress on class D, may obviate the latter statement |
