Can digital get to vinyl sound and at what price?

[Kingrex]

Digital will also have to contend with analog master tapes. Right now digital can't touch that format. I was lucky enough to be invited many years ago to hear the master tape of Joni Mitchell's 1976 Hejira Album at a recording studio on a Studer machine. I have that album in LP format since 1977.

Master tapes are usually owned by the record label and are therefore unobtainable to the average music fan. Copies of master tapes are extremely rare of major recording artists.

There are a lot o classical masters that are out there. Many studio decided they did not want to deal with them There are people I know that purchase the lot. Oddly there is a lot of not so good medai. But many jems also.

 

[A-Line]

There are a lot o classical masters that are out there. Many studio decided they did not want to deal with them There are people I know that purchase the lot. Oddly there is a lot of not so good medai. But many jems also.

This is true, not true for major R&R acts though.
I would love to have master tape copies of the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, and the Rolling Stones...The Doors too. That's not going to happen for me so I'll play my records.
The stuff that's out there for tape does not interest me much.

Most of my analog tapes are of live FM broadcasts of classical music from the 1980's.
I used Ampex 456 Grand Master tape and those tapes still sound very nice even now

I knew a guy once that bought master tape copies from Analog Productions(Acoustic Sounds) in the USA just because he liked the sound with his Studer A820 but he didn't really like the musical material. He was shocked to find out that my ReVox B77 MKII was made by Studer and that ReVox was the home audio brand from the parent company Studer. Another thing that he was surprised about was that my tape machine could also play at 15ips though I recorded at 7.5ips to get more music on the tape....