A new analog medium


It's been about 60 years since the introduction of the reel-to-reel tape; isn't it about time for a new analog medium?
Actually, there was the Laserdisc in the 70s and this optical analog medium is probably the best candidate for a new analog format.
Vinyl and magnetic tape are far from perfect and far from being convenient to use. There is room for improvement in both of these areas.
exlibris
Do you have any idea what it cost to manufacture a laserdisc? It's vastly more complicated and expensive than putting a driver in a box. Not to say it can't be done, so why aren't you doing it if it's so worthwhile?
The Nyquist-Shannon theorem states that exact reconstruction of a continuous-time baseband signal from its samples is possible if the signal is bandlimited and the sampling frequency is greater than twice the signal bandwidth.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyquist%E2%80%93Shannon_sampling_theorem

Of course, real world implementatiosn of math suffers from some approximation....you can't have "infinity" in the real world (unless you are Buzz Lightyear). In practice designers build digital gear to a level that they believe makes the imperfections inaudible. Some engineers believe that digital audio is now into marketing hype territory (192 KHz, 24 bit and SACD formats are overkill) and that further improvements are not justfiable, as redbook CD imperfections are already dwarfed by other factors, such as the speakers and electronic imperfections. The popularity of lossy MP3, shows that many consumers must share his view.

Perfect analog, if it were possible in the real world, would no doubt be slightly better than the current digital implementations. However, in practice, given the current view of engineers and consumers, it seems unlikely that a new analog medium will be forthcoming. Necessity is the mother of invention....and the need just doesn't seem to be there.