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Another Analog v. Digital Thread? Not Really

I’ll try to keep this as short as possible. The premise is this: If the highest compliment that can be given to digital is that it sounds analog, why bother with digital? I would never have posted this question, but the other week something happened. After owning my Oppo 205 for about a year and a half, I decided to sell it given the fact I wasn’t that crazy about it and the selling prices were quite good, although I posted mine for significantly less than many others are asking. BTW - In the last month I owned the Oppo, I found it tremendously improved by placing a Vibrapod 3 under each foot.

So a nice young man comes by for an audition and he likes the Oppo very much and purchases it. He is into 4k and all that stuff, but also wants some better audio quality. So that’s that.

Before he leaves, he asks to hear a vinyl record played on my Basis turntable. It’s a nice table - 2001 with Vector arm and Transfiguration Orpheus. I would rate it as the low end of the high end. Well the guy’s jaw just dropped. After sitting for an hour listening to the Oppo, he says that everything is so much more "alive" was the word he used and he couldn’t get his mind around the fact that he was listening to the exact same system with everything the same except the source.

I was considering replacing the Oppo with something like a Cambridge transport and Orchid dac because I have to play my CDs, right? But then I starting thinking why I had to play CDs anymore at all. It’s not so crazy when you think about it. Many of us gave up vinyl when CDs started getting decent, so what’s so strange about going back in the other direction?

So I asked myself - if analog is so much better, why would I even bother listening to CDs anymore?
Convenience? Well, sure, but I don’t really consider putting on a record very inconvenient, so that’s not really it.
Many titles on CD that are not on vinyl? I think that argument may be largely dissipated nowdays. It seems that virtually anything I would remotely want to listen to is available on vinyl, either new or used. You have thousands of CDs? OK, but if they don’t sound as good as a record, why would you want to listen to them just because you have them. I know it seems like a waste, but it happens sometimes.

Let me just finish with this, so there’s no confusion. If you have some insane high-end digital rig that you believe outdoes analog, this is not directed to you. But, for anyone who believes the best compliment you can give to digital is that it sounds analog, why bother? Also, to you streamers out there, the freedom from having a large quantity of physical media in your home is definitely a good argument. We all collect too much stuff and it’s nice to get rid of some.

Hopefully, this will be taken in the spirit it’s given, but I doubt it.
Merry Christmas, really.
chayro
chayro OP
2,936 posts
 
@larryi - the Naim 555 series are in a class by themselves.  I could definitely give up analog for a 555 CD player.  And I don't know if I'll give up digital.  It was just the first time it even occurred to me. 

@twoleftears  - you may be right about obscure composers, but I would say my lp collection is at least 50% classical, albeit pretty mainstream stuff.  But all I was saying is the argument that a lot of music is not available on vinyl is less true today than it was years ago.  If your music is not, that's certainly a good enough reason to stick with digital. 
millercarbon's avatar
millercarbon
12,531 posts
 
Big subject. If there's music you just can't live without and its only on CD then I guess you will just have to listen to CD. But if your enjoyment is in listening to really good music really well recorded and played back there's just no reason to subject yourself to substandard audio. ie, CD.

I'm old enough to have gone from records and tape (open reel) to CD, and to CD/records, and now all records. Just reached a point in life where doing just for the sake of doing no longer cuts it. Variety for its own sake is such a waste. What few hours I have to enjoy listening to music, by God, I'm gonna spend it listening to music. 

The OP is absolutely right about the sound quality. That one is so done beat to death its silly. The last guy who even questioned it was 20 years ago. Played both, never asked again. 

Pretty much all the complaints are made up out of whole cloth and easy enough to dismiss. Surface noise? With CD the signal is the noise. My wife pointed this one out to me, saying she was shocked by how much less noise there was with records. I thought for sure she was mistaken. Surface noise is a lot worse with records. Eventually realized she meant the music itself, the whole signal, was turned into noise by the CD. She's right of course.

Fiddly finicky setup? Get real. Of course you can do that. It sure is not necessary. Half the stuff they pretend matters, really doesn't, not so much. My vintage 1973 Technics SL1700 with Stanton 681EEE was set up by eye ball and Shure teeter-totter VTF gauge forty years ago. When I dug it out of a box and played a record my wife from the next room who did not know what was going on asked me what sounded so good. Well we had been CD only, this was her first time in years hearing vinyl. So get real.

The rituals of playing a record? I couldn't play a CD without cleaning it either, and demagnetizing, and coloring, and then after all of that sitting down and.... sorry, what were you expecting? No matter what you do its still just a CD.

So now I play records. Records only. Well, movies. And technically I do play CD. The XLO demagnetizing tracks are on CD. So I play that. CD is great for that. Mindless, repetitive, programmable, nothing you would ever want to listen to. The appropriate technology used appropriately.


jaytor's avatar
jaytor
747 posts
 
In the late 80's and early 90's, I had what was then considered a fairly SOTA analog system - Goldmund Studio table (T3 arm, can't remember version) with a Koetsu MC cartridge, AR SP10 preamp. But my music collection was slowing moving toward CDs for convenience, and after moving four times in five years for my job, dealing with the analog source become too much hassle. 

I regret selling off my LP collection for pennies on the dollar (pre-ebay days), but I don't really miss dealing with setting up the cartridge/table correctly, cleaning records, having my blood pressure skyrocket any time someone else in my family wanted to use my system, etc. 

I don't disagree that a good analog front-end can sound glorious. I've heard some modern systems that are pretty amazing.

What I'm curious about is what makes LPs sound better to so many people, given that the vast majority of LPs are digitally mastered these days. Is it that most digital playback systems just aren't up to the level of the gear used to produce the recordings, or is it that a good analog system adds a quality to the signal that can't (or hasn't yet been) replicated in the digital domain? Or is the preference for analog only for recordings that were mastered completely in the analog domain?
pushpull
17 posts
 
Had the pleasure of hearing Christian McBride's Quintet last week at the Village Vanguard. We live in a time of wonderful possibilities and no HiFi system will ever replace live music. That said Analog, Digital, it's all great. Whatever you choose please don't forget to Enjoy the Music!!
PS. Thanks to all who have contributed to my knowledge thru this Forum
Season Greetings to All !!
twoleftears's avatar
twoleftears
5,313 posts
 
So there you have it.  "Really well recorded" "really good music" is available on vinyl; as for the rest, well...…………….
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