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Analog and digital are both equally amazing...

My whole life (so far 39 years) has been battling with affording a high end stereo system and finding out what it is want to do with my life. For many years I believed vinyl sounded better and I use to get a lot of flack from people. This opinion that opinion anyway I did always buy cd's simply because it was the "standard" format available at tower records. Anyway I always went to the local mom and pop record store and bought my favorite albums on vinyl. So I have experience with both and understand the positives and negatives of both.

My point is my amazing wife got me Apple TV this past Christmas and for a few years I've been bringing my cd collection into iTunes. I have to say that tonight I realized neither is better or worse than the other I'm just happy that I can enjoy music no matter the medium over a mcintosh and Thiel system.

This is a general statement I'm taking the good with the bad with both formats.

Happy listening fellow nut cases may we always search for the nirvana of listening where ever that maybe, during ain't talking about love from van halen or she's gone by hall and oats.
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mapman
15,679 posts
 
"Sound reproduction has been pretty good for a long time IMO."

I think about that all the time whenever hear about some revolutionary new product, especially one with a big price tag.

Both analog and digital are fairly mature and evolved at this point. You can play games with different flavors of equipment, and do things well to various scales, but is there really anything new under the sun when it comes to home audio sound reproduction? I'm not seeing it.
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mapman
15,679 posts
 
I would add that while I am not so sure the ceiling is being raised anymore in terms of in-home sound quality, there is still a lot of progress being made in regards to the cost of gear needed to achieve excellent results, especially with digital music. Although already a viable option, I also think Class D amps are still blazing new frontiers in terms of the sound quality that can be delivered out of a smaller, lighter, more energy efficient amplifiers.
frogman
4,637 posts
 
I agree with the basic premise. Both can sound amazing; but, amazing in different ways. However, the more familiar one is with the sound of unamplified acoustic instruments the more apparent it is that analog still comes closer to that sound than even the best digital.
zd542
5,339 posts
 
"02-02-15: Frogman
I agree with the basic premise. Both can sound amazing; but, amazing in different ways. However, the more familiar one is with the sound of unamplified acoustic instruments the more apparent it is that analog still comes closer to that sound than even the best digital."

Overall, I agree with your post. One thing I've noticed with digital is that the analog portion of a digital source, has a very big effect on how real instruments sound.
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geoffkait
14,147 posts
 
Zd542 wrote,

"Overall, I agree with your post. One thing I've noticed with digital is that the analog portion of a digital source, has a very big effect on how real instruments sound."

Absolutely. I have a habit of looking on every CD for the AAD, ADD, DDD. Too bad there's never an AAA. Yuk, yuk. DDD labeled CD can sound transparent but rather lifeless, whereas AAD labeled CDs are more engaging. Digital remastered cassettes? They sound pretty damn good, difficult to tell IMO. Tape is a natural medium. It breathes.
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