Jadem, your thinking is right on target. One may be dismayed at the instant hackle-raising that occurs whenever there is an analog-digital comparison, but it isn't really hard to understand.
Obviously, someone who has invested tens of thousands of dollars in analog hardware (not to mention vinylware) is going to hold forth stoutly on the superiority of analog. This will be true if the individual is genuinely convinced that s/he hears differences in the media of sufficient magnitude to warrant the expenditure of such sums. It will be true if the individual has found and fallen in love with an intriguing hobby (which I used to liken in my own case to building ships in very expensive bottles). It will be true even if the individual has no motive other than conspicuous consumption.
Contrariwise, some persons who long for analog systems but are unable to purchase them may find the vinyl grapes most puckeringly sour. The pH of those grapes is likely to be low whether the individual sincerely believes that s/he is missing the chance for nirvanic audio through entrapment in the digital domain or merely feels chagrin at his/her inability to acquire the latest and greatest mechanical impedimenta and thereby join the analog literati.
Persons on the analog side of the debate are likely to be the more volatile of the two, at least in my experience, on account of the really staggering amounts of time and money some of them spend. They become, in Eric Hoffer's brilliant construction, True Believers. One does not tweak their noses with impunity.
Members of the digitali, feeling the inferiority of having spent a mere $2000 on a CD player rather than a princely $20,000 on a turntable, tend to retreat into querulous objectivism, thereby treading on one of the most sacred totems of the high end, namely that What One Says One Hears Must Not Be Discounted.
One must not be surprised, then, that the bringing together of these divided camps is often accompanied by donner und blitzen. Indeed, so hair-trigger are some of the tempers and so vituperative some of the personalities that one comes clearly to understand that for them audiophilia is not wholly about the enjoyment of sound, their varied remonstrations to the contrary notwithstanding.
In the end, one must choose a camp and live with one's tentmates as best one may. A healthy self image helps, as does some knowledge of human nature and a puckish sense of humor. But beware: the little girl who dared to observe that her emperor rode abroad unclothed gained neither the love of her king nor the admiration of her fellows. And it wouldn't have made the slightest difference if the potentate had claimed to be attired in sensuous black or in shimmery silver.
will
Obviously, someone who has invested tens of thousands of dollars in analog hardware (not to mention vinylware) is going to hold forth stoutly on the superiority of analog. This will be true if the individual is genuinely convinced that s/he hears differences in the media of sufficient magnitude to warrant the expenditure of such sums. It will be true if the individual has found and fallen in love with an intriguing hobby (which I used to liken in my own case to building ships in very expensive bottles). It will be true even if the individual has no motive other than conspicuous consumption.
Contrariwise, some persons who long for analog systems but are unable to purchase them may find the vinyl grapes most puckeringly sour. The pH of those grapes is likely to be low whether the individual sincerely believes that s/he is missing the chance for nirvanic audio through entrapment in the digital domain or merely feels chagrin at his/her inability to acquire the latest and greatest mechanical impedimenta and thereby join the analog literati.
Persons on the analog side of the debate are likely to be the more volatile of the two, at least in my experience, on account of the really staggering amounts of time and money some of them spend. They become, in Eric Hoffer's brilliant construction, True Believers. One does not tweak their noses with impunity.
Members of the digitali, feeling the inferiority of having spent a mere $2000 on a CD player rather than a princely $20,000 on a turntable, tend to retreat into querulous objectivism, thereby treading on one of the most sacred totems of the high end, namely that What One Says One Hears Must Not Be Discounted.
One must not be surprised, then, that the bringing together of these divided camps is often accompanied by donner und blitzen. Indeed, so hair-trigger are some of the tempers and so vituperative some of the personalities that one comes clearly to understand that for them audiophilia is not wholly about the enjoyment of sound, their varied remonstrations to the contrary notwithstanding.
In the end, one must choose a camp and live with one's tentmates as best one may. A healthy self image helps, as does some knowledge of human nature and a puckish sense of humor. But beware: the little girl who dared to observe that her emperor rode abroad unclothed gained neither the love of her king nor the admiration of her fellows. And it wouldn't have made the slightest difference if the potentate had claimed to be attired in sensuous black or in shimmery silver.
will