When is digital going to get the soul of music?

Been there for years... Museatex Bidat.

Timrhu; I hear you and I am not in disagreement with you, however, :) I think you may be taking a different route than the meaning behind this post. I think we are more concerned with a great deal of digital devices NOT being able to capture the ethereal emotional content that music contains. It seems that pure analog sources have an easier time with this elusive non-quantized metric than digital does (although I am one to admit the newer turntables are sounding more and more sterile and less musical to me). I will say that I have heard some digital capture this magic and I believe my AMR DP777 is one of those units, but I still hear ultra expensive digital (like the $90K DA converter I recently listened to) which simply has no clue; I mean they can sound absolutely PRISTINE with all the resolution of an electron scanning microscope and absolutely sound NOTHING like music if you get my meaning :)

Ptss:

You are very correct, power cords as well as wall sockets have a profound effect on my system. I use one of the original PSAudio P300's to power the phono stage and TT. I plan to power the entire system with a few P10's eventually. The P300 really does make a difference and I use it at 65hz.

I love digital but I am now the newly converted (analog). When it is done RIGHT, and I mean every cylinder needs to be firing correctly Analog is in my opinion sans pareil. I for years would state and still to this day believe that when you have superlative digital, DCS/AMR/Playback Design/Meitner/Stahltek/Super Bidat/Dynavox Dynastation...etc. it can be difficult for analog to keep up if it is not optimized.

The KEY is OPTIMIZATION. When you have the correct table with the right arm/cartridge combination, phono stage, clamp...etc...> This is still not enough. Is the setup done EXCELLENTLY and I can not stress this enough. My SP10 MK3/ PH77 + Graaf GM70/Kuzma 4 Point/Ortofon MC Anna sounds FANTASTIC (if I do say so myself :)... and I will LOL BUT I can change my VTF by 2/100ths of a gram and it will collapse!!!

I can change the VTA by a minuscule amount and it will shut it down. Remember this is a microscopic world we are dealing with and a lot of tables are just not setup correctly. Also a lot of modern mass produced tables have horrible bearings.

Avid, Basis, TW Acoustic all have fantastic bearings as does Feikert and Brinkman... to name just a few.

My digital which to me is VERY VERY good, at this point, it simply can not keep up with my analog. AMR DP777/iPurifier/iUSB Power/2x Gemini USB cables (better than and replaced my former $3K Locus Design Cynosure/custom Duelund VSF BLACK output coupling caps.

Now having said that I had NEVER and I mean NEVER heard analog at a show or in a friends home that sounded nearly as good a my digital.., but when in my own home and METICULOUSLY setup and broken in... it is a revelation. VTF/VTA/Azimuth/Anti Skate/Loading/Correct EQ .., I find Diana Krall albums only sound good to me with Enhanced RIAA.

All I am saying is make sure you have that microscopic world absolutely setup correctly and experiment with clamps/weights :)

Just my analog novice 2 cents :)

Enjoy