When is digital going to get the soul of music?

Robm321, I used to listen to vinyl exclusively throughout the 70's and most of the 80's and I still like the sound of it. What I didn't like is the inevitable deterioration that results from playing records. In addition, back in the heyday of vinyl, about 2/3s of the records I bought were so poorly made and exhibited so much surface noise, ticks and pops, excessive warpage and harshness that they were nearly unlistenable. I'm sure that whatever miniscule vinyl production is done today is done much more meticulously than it was back then but I think that deterioration is still a problem. One could argue that many CDs are unlistenable but the reasons tend to be poor recording or mastering - or possibly large amounts of jitter inherent in the pressing. Now maybe I didn't have the most state of the art playback system. My vinyl setup consisted of a Micro Seiki DD-33 turntable with a carbon graphite tonearm, a Denon MC-301 cartridge, and a DB Systems preamp with separate power supply and head amp. This is a very modest setup compared with the many thousand dollar systems that are available today. I'll also admit that I haven't heard the absolute state of the art in digital playback but I can set that my digital setup now outperforms my vinyl setup of yesteryear. My main point is that if most people believe that vinyl actually does sound better, it's not because it is more pure or provides more actual information. It's because the types of distortion it creates are complimentary to the source material.

I'm a little late in joining this discussion but I think what Onhwy61 said about distortion is absolutely correct. Call it what it is. Tube equipment adds it and I suspect a piece of equipment could be designed that would emulate tape saturation and/or vinyl compression even more accurately. Perhaps a business opportunity exists here. This would not compensate for bad recording technique or bad pressings but in the case of a good CD recording, would provide what vinyl lovers would call "magic".

I can remember the digitally recorded vinyl records from the late 70's, early 80's. They seemed unbelievably good. I also have a compilation CD of Asian music where I swear that one of the tracks came from vinyl. It has the sound of vinyl complete with the ticks and the sense of space and immersion is undeniable. I will agree that vinyl does offer a very pleasant listening experience but I would dispute the assertion that digital is an inferior medium.