In the last year I listened exclusively to vinyl for 6 months until a friend, who was interested in buying some Martin Logan 'Stats asked if he could audition my setup. Being a digital only listener I spun a few CDs for the demo then afterwards went back to listening to LPs.
What does this tell us about the relative merits? Merely that I prefer analogue.
Some of the most profound words I've heard on the subject came from a magazine's interview of a 17 yr old(!) who'd been bitten by the bug who said, "With digital you can listen to music...but with analogue you EXPERIENCE the music." Well said that lad.
This doesn't mean that CD/Digital recordings cannot induce emotion or provide a decent listening experience, they can, but nothing brings those classics to life in the same way as a good LP - especially those which are analogue produced throughout the entire recording chain.
There is a practicality issue regarding availability of new releases, so I believe a degree of compromise is required. Not everyone can live entirely without Digital so the question of whether one should TRY to do so is debatable.
(If one was happy to buy only from S/H record shops then there is more than enough music to last a lifetime, so it can be done but if you are following new artists then you may prefer to have some digital replay capability?)
Digital is not completely offensive to the ear. You can live with it but you may not want to all the time...?
What does this tell us about the relative merits? Merely that I prefer analogue.
Some of the most profound words I've heard on the subject came from a magazine's interview of a 17 yr old(!) who'd been bitten by the bug who said, "With digital you can listen to music...but with analogue you EXPERIENCE the music." Well said that lad.
This doesn't mean that CD/Digital recordings cannot induce emotion or provide a decent listening experience, they can, but nothing brings those classics to life in the same way as a good LP - especially those which are analogue produced throughout the entire recording chain.
There is a practicality issue regarding availability of new releases, so I believe a degree of compromise is required. Not everyone can live entirely without Digital so the question of whether one should TRY to do so is debatable.
(If one was happy to buy only from S/H record shops then there is more than enough music to last a lifetime, so it can be done but if you are following new artists then you may prefer to have some digital replay capability?)
Digital is not completely offensive to the ear. You can live with it but you may not want to all the time...?