When is digital going to get the soul of music?

May not have the "soul" which is audiotory and aesthetic.The needle in groove being so sexual in it imagery may be the aesthetic part.Plus it's making sourse of enjoyment "mortal"(it will wear out).But perhaps that our ears beiong analogue "instruments" are picking up that digital is foreign and LP's "warm" and re-aauring like tubes.Have to get to this months Stereophile to see if their is such a thing a "pleasant distortion" which many folks have saiud is why tubes sound beter-we hear low order )pleasing warmth) as opposed to higher order distortion which is well unpleasant and just "distortion".But I now ask same question of new digital amps by Bel Cantgo and PS Audio.Both got Class A ratings in steeophile.And digital amps offer real advatages over traditional solid state and tube amps.They use very little power,keep cool,,etc.But reviewers are always using words like "clean","Neutral","does not impart own signature" and I am not sure that this might all be good.Some may hear it and dig it.Other will invrariably call it either "soulless".Lifeless"."boring" etc .You have to hear yourslef )preferably in your room 50% of your rigs sound anyway) to se where you stand.
Chazzbo

Man
Never thought the post would generate som mnay reponses especially ones dealling with fish.Just as aside when I sold CD's at a shop ('96 to '02)I used to tell folks that starting in about 2000 when K2 and other 20 bit processors were being used and engineers stated to understand how to transfer analogue tapes to CD they started to sound much better .Being the jazz guy II used to put on Fntasy/OJC CD's and they were terrible.But now listen to ones e-materedafter 2000 like say Knny Dorhams "Quiet Kenny" or Creedence Clearwaters Cd's which were also re-doone and your jaw would drop if doing an A/B comaparrison.
But part of the earely problem (which exists till this day) is that some Engineers can't help themselves from trying to be the "5th Beatle" aince they had ability to effect EQ,Compression,expansion,filtering etc etc.Which brought me to reccomend that to customers (and jazz fans) to see how good their stereo could sound by buying the Mappleshades label's "Clifford Jordan:Live At Ethells".Mapplehade used their own cables,modified mikes,and pople placed onstage close or far away to mikes for level.It went from mike straight to two track tape machine so no board with EQ,reveb,compression etc etc was employed.The result was like being in the room with the group.With a decent yet modest speaker you could hear fingers as they passed across key's and the normal breathing of Jordan while others slo'd if you listened carefully.Jordan playand on one cut sings funny yet heartfelt version of "Lush Life" an in addition to being impeccable performing was STUNNING sonics.
The only other recodings other than Mappleshades are those (and SOME MoFi and JVC RXRCD's) are those on the Venus lable out of Japan.It taught me that all those lousy early 80's digital LP's were because the tech back them sucked and engineers didn't know what they were doing.Venus now has a huge catalogue of some of the best in Jazz and also did a few wonderful transfers (Like Al Haig's "I Love You" origninally on Interplay in late 70's).I always heard that LP's should only be pressed from analoguetape.BULLSHIT!!Just
listen to one of the 4 Ballad CD's/Lp's Archie Shepp did for Venus like "True Blue" (both pressed from the same digital tape).BUY and listen to this LP.It's as good as any LP I have ever heard.This was the problem for me with Venus.The Lp's sounded so great and had that "tactile" sense you only get from Lp's but I knew (and could hear) that CD's had a much wider dynamic range.So in most cases I bought both!But the silly sounding processcalled "24 bit HyperMagnum Sound" was,and is amzing,proving to me that FANTASTIC LP's can be mae from digital source tape.I know Neil Young is a big analogue tape fan and uses it (or did until recently) to record his CD master tape.I respect him enomously as and artist and someone who knows technology but I wish he could record for Venus.
Chazzzzzzzzzzz
Any more Filet of Sole jokes did we miss?

About half a dozen years ago Red Book started to get it with processes like K@20 Bit.Listen to and old Miles davis "Kind Of Blue" from mid 80's and it new speed corrected latetsversion (the fith I believe).Or an old Pretige LP or say Creedance Clearwater Revival that now uses K2 20 bit. Blows away early CD's.Some SACD's may be neck and neck with vinyl as we speak.I still prefer the ritual and sound of LP's (nad maybe becausse like us them seem more mortal) but I uised to crap over digital and it's true everyone with Ipods and MP# has been 'dumbed" dow but I am also after 20 yers of digital excited to se PURELY ON A SOUND BASIS if a $300 CD playyer (or whever format they call it) sounds like a/b'd with $500 or $2K analogue rig.We may be in for a shock.That plus even if it is LP's it will be played through digital amps.Take how a DEQX 2.6 for a rsonmable price and have our jaw drop at what it does to the 50% factor of your room.Someone will have to help you pick your jaw up and jam, your tongue in again even if it's that 1957 deep ghroove ABC/Paramount LP that was the source.
Chazzbo