Can you imagine a world without vinyl?

Actually Albert,

...Needle in groove has had 130 years to evolve, CD has had just over 20 years

Analogue, being what it is (well, "analogous")lends itself to engineering improvement. The dominant digital format is utlimately limited by its s/ware. Ain't much you can do about that even given the time

BTW, Raul, 24/192 is still perceptible. But it's neither annoying nor in yr face -- or any in any way grossly obtrusive. However, digital can do even better than that, apparently: I was present at a 1st gen master tape (analogue) copying into digital at a studio. The result, dig. copy vs "master" was exquisite. Rpo soundcards used of course, don't know the bit rates.

Dear Gregm: You can't go further than 24 bits. The differences could be in how you use this 24 bits technology.

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.

Thanks, Raul. My post was unclear.

Rauliruegas...I don't know why you CAN'T have more than 24 bits in a word...the missile guidance computer I used to work with used 32 bit words and much of the data and calculations were "double precision" 64 bit words. But as you say, HOW you use the bits is most important. Our music is "fixed point" data. When you play a quiet section of music through 24 bit digital converters you are actually only using perhaps 8 to 10 of the lowest bits. Not that great resolution. I have recently discovered the importance of keeping the analog signal up before the A/D of my Behringer DEQ2496 equalizer, although this requires me to attenuate the output going to my power amps. A better way to use the available bits, whether 16 or 24, would be "floating point". (A few bits are used to indicate the scaling of the remaining bits of data). This format provides the best resolution for signals of all amplitudes. In the DEQ2496 after the A/D input , a 32 bit floating point digital signal processing (DSP) module performs the equalization and other functions, so we know it can be done. Now we need a disc (or other digital media) that employs floating point.

I thought that, when it comes to digital audio, there's only so much bit-depth, or S/N ratio, that can pertain in any case, due to the limits of both the noise floor of all the analog parts of the record/playback chain (including the listening room), as well as of human hearing. But maybe what Raul was talking about was simply the limits of currently employed standards for mastering gear.