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analog vs. digital better ? or just different

ive recently been able to bring my analog set up to the level [at least dollar wise] to my digital rig. ill leave brand names out of it but my cd player's worth about 3000.00 and my table cartridge and preamp, about the same.ive listened carefully and love the way the turntable sounds, perhaps not the best there is, but certainly a taste. then i put in a cd, awsome sound very detailed. both seem to depend on the recording, my newer and remastered cd's , very impressive. on the album side age doesnt seem to matter much, some just sound much better than others. so i guess my question is, am i in the thick of it, or just at the edge analog wise, because i woudnt say my turntable sounds better, just different. your opinion?
jrw40
jrw40 OP
61 posts
 
steve audio, i left brand names out for the reason you might think, x brand rules vs. x brand sucks. but here we go . pro-ject perspective 2 with carbon fiber tonearm, benz micro mc cartridge. cairn nitro preamp with phono card cairn fog 3 with upsampling card, cairn ko2 amp with sonus cremona speakers. all in all a very satisfying system. though i am considering a cartridge change.
dcstep
1,518 posts
 
The best of both is about the same; however, I think that you need to spend more on digital to get it up to the analog hurdle, but once there, it's every bit as good.

Dave
audiofeil
4,011 posts
 
Analog vs. digital is a lame (and old) argument.

They're different. Good and bad examples of each exist.

Leave it at that.
tomcy6's avatar
tomcy6
1,368 posts
 
There is nothing wrong with you if your cd player sounds great to you. No matter what anyone says. And there is nothing wrong with you if you prefer vinyl.

I think that for some albums the vinyl version sounds better for others the cd sounds better. CDs and CD players are steadily improving and will continue to improve for many more years.

Reading Stereophile and TAS you would think that vinyl is taking over, but according to Nielsen SoundScan and the RIAA about 1 million new vinyl records were sold last year. That's about 0.2% of albums sold in 2007.

I think that the audiophile mags would be doing a greater service to our shared passion (listening to music) and their advertisers if they promoted the improvement of cd as hard as they push vinyl. There are a lot more people listening to cds than vinyl and our hobby is desperately in need of more people.

Then there are high-res downloads (24/192) coming very soon. Don't say they don't sound as good as vinyl until you hear them : )
chashmal
605 posts
 
To really make a clear distinction between digital and analogue you can't use your rig. There will be merits to each on your stuff. Obviously you know that you can spend tens of thousands on each. Judge by the extremes of performance, then scale down to fit your budget. That way you know what you are shooting for. This is good advice, and will save you frustration of not knowing what the end game is.
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