When is digital going to get the soul of music?

Mapman - Good question. I don't think they know how to handle it yet. They shot themselfs in the foot keeping high prices and poor recording quality of CDs and sales are down (empty stores). They also loose a lot of money on stuff being illegally copied and are dramatically searching for the new, well copy protected format (SACD, HDCD). Latest, I heard, is CODE pushed by some artist (N. Young, Mellencamp). It is 24bit/96kHz 2 channel recording on DVD media at the price of standard CD. Latest Mellencamp's record was released on CODE (so I heard).

Mapman, you posted while I was composing my response.

I agree that digital could be great and said so in my original post. As for your experience with digital being better in some cases, I have yet to have that happen in my system. There have been hundreds of tests on my system over the years, sometimes involving manufacturers and even other reviewers.

However, I have had master digital files played here and also at a friends home and you have no idea what a digital master is capable of.

Source is everything! You cannot fix the problem downstream no matter how good the other equipment is.

"However, I have had master digital files played here and also at a friends home and you have no idea what a digital master is capable of. "

Oh yes I do......

Did it get the "soul" of the music?

"As for your experience with digital being better in some cases, I have yet to have that happen in my system."

I've only a/b tested more pop/rock recordings where I can assert clearly that it has.

I was surprised when it happened though with "Days Of Future Passed" by the Moody Blues, though (see my reviews here).

I would expect many more cases favoring vinyl with large scale symphonic recordings in general, from my experience.

Other than that, well produced CDs work to my satisfaction in general, but I would prefer higher resolution with digital if done well in most all cases.

W

Did it get the "soul" of the music?

Since my comparison was made only between the commercial CD release and the artists personal copy of a digital master, there was no analog to judge by.

Part of why I was listening was because my friend was angry that the manufacturer had "ruined" his CD release. I explained that CD was not capable of what he heard on the master and he was very disappointed.