Can digital get to vinyl sound and at what price?

In any case the numbers prove It's a non starter for vinyl being better than digital
People may like the sound of vinyl and tubes better(actually the pleasant sound of distortion )
But technically it's way inferior
There's no way around it.

We can argue the technical issues of both until you are blue in the face. The best tube and vinyl equipment clearly produces a more natural and realistic presentation.
 
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...it's still early, but currently leading the pack today in both the Most Combative and Silliest Post categories.
Not combative at all, how would you describe someone who chooses not to listen to the best recordings of the greatest music ever made?
 
We can argue the technical issues of both until you are blue in the face. The best tube and vinyl equipment clearly produces a more natural and realistic presentation.
That's a subjective opinion
It's not a scientific fact, the numbers are and you can't argue with them.
Digital is far superior to any vinyl
Not to mention that the masters of the recordings are in digital and only then transferred to vinyl.
Nothing sounds better than the master itself .
 
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These are theoretical values, show me a recording that has more than 25dB dynamic range. you can count them on one hand. 25 dB means more than 100 times amplification, it should not be forgotten that hi-fi systems reach their limits. in reality the differences are very small.
It's like saying that a Ferrari engine is not that much better than a Toyota Corolla engine in real-world conditions
 
Not combative at all, how would you describe someone who chooses not to listen to the best recordings of the greatest music ever made?
...OK, let's remove your post from the Most Combative prize category, but we'll have to add double points for the Silliest Prize after the above post.
 
It is quite amazing how from December 1982 and the invention of CD format, the start of commercially available (large scale) of digital playback, we are still banging on about this subject. IMO both have come on a LOT since the early day, and both can satisfy. Thinking how much tweaking and 'fixing' many audiophile go through to get their digital rigs as satisfying as possible, is pretty much like IMO how TT guys tweak their cartridges, tone arm adjustments and TT support. I wonder if we ever will have a 'perfect' format out of the box so to speak.

The question I try to ask myself, is do I enjoy listening to music, am I 'chilled out' doing it, and can I forget the gear. Sometimes I can, so maybe that is all we need? Format can be ignore? I doubt it LOL.
 
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how would you describe someone who chooses not to listen to the best recordings of the greatest music ever made?

I am sure I will violate the TOS if I use appropriate words
 
That's a subjective opinion
It's not a scientific fact,

No, this has been proven thru peer-reviewed tests!

the numbers are and you can't argue with them.
Digital is far superior to any vinyl

Numbers have next to zero relationship to what things sound like!

Not to mention that the masters of the recordings are in digital and only then transferred to vinyl.
Nothing sounds better than the master itself .

Yet a digital sourced pressing often sounds better than the commercially available digital format.

But I only deal with analog sourced pressings.
 
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It is quite amazing how from December 1982 and the invention of CD format, the start of commercially available (large scale) of digital playback, we are still banging on about this subject.

They completely botched it from the get-go, and the fact is, none of the digital design theories were thought to be capable of true high fidelity.
 
That's a subjective opinion
It's not a scientific fact, the numbers are and you can't argue with them.
Digital is far superior to any vinyl
Not to mention that the masters of the recordings are in digital and only then transferred to vinyl.
Nothing sounds better than the master itself .
Not as clear cut IMO. It is how it is replayed that we are discussing rather than was it digital at the recording stage. Our ear and brains do seem HYPER sensitive to artefacts in the treble regions I find. Why is that? I imagine our ears are tuned to hear the human voice, and most of that resides in the presence region and above. I am guessing, I am not a medic. If we ARE so sensitive to that effect, then pretty quickly we get tired, loose concentration, zone out etc. This is a huge generalisation but that is my take on this subject. There is 'something' in digital that is not in vinyl. And the bits vinyl do less well are less destructive to our ears - we forgive them. I am not obsessed wth a bit of tape his for example, as we hear on old Zep recordings. This is my personal view, YMMV.
 
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It's like saying that a Ferrari engine is not that much better than a Toyota Corolla engine in real-world conditions
This has nothing to do with the technically possible possibilities of digital or vinyl. The recording you play determines everything. Nobody doubts that CD or SACD are technically superior. garbage in =garbage out put simply.
 
That's a subjective opinion
It's not a scientific fact, the numbers are and you can't argue with them.
Digital is far superior to any vinyl
Not to mention that the masters of the recordings are in digital and only then transferred to vinyl.
Nothing sounds better than the master itself .
That's not always true I'm afraid.
What happens, I'm guessing, is the vinyl master filters out the distortion embedded in the original digital master.
 
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View attachment 113826View attachment 113827
How can anyone claim vinyl is better than digital is beyond me.
Science and facts prove it's a lot worseView attachment 113825

I am a scientist (a biochemist) and obviously I like numbers too. Having said that, in music reproduction I also trust what my ears tell.me.

Have you ever heard just how voraciously dynamic top level vinyl playback can sound? It's just astounding, and it puts lots of digital -- certainly not all of it -- to shame. Especially on great jazz pressings digital can have a hard time competing with those dynamics.
 
That's not always true I'm afraid.
What happens, I'm guessing, is the vinyl master filters out the distortion embedded in the original digital master.

Well, I have thought a lot on this issue, and while most of these pressings are on relatively low quality vinyl, you also have the lack of distortions and nonlinearities that are introduced by most consumer dac's.
 
Not sure about anti-digital but if you don't own a turntable you're anti-music.

Extremist statements like this give vinyl enthusiasts a bad name.

Statements like these help no one, and certainly not the case for vinyl.
 
Yet some of us have, and happen to be particularly sensitive to what digital does wrong.

Given your statements, I don't think you have any clue about well optimized playback of current great digital.
 
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Given your statements, I don't think you have any clue about current great digital.

You are wrong sir. While top end digital components and software have been able to overcome some of digitals audible deficiencies, it still sounds like an imperfect artificial facsimile.
 
In any case the numbers prove It's a non starter for vinyl being better than digital
People may like the sound of vinyl and tubes better(actually the pleasant sound of distortion )
But technically it's way inferior
There's no way around it.

Expert audiophiles do not like pleasant sound of tube distortion and if they prefer tubes it does not mean they like tube euphony. low performance tube amplifiers + current hungry speakers have more tube euphony distortion but high performance tube/horn systems are prefered for their immediacy, naturalness and dynamic.
I mean expert audiophiles do not like negative aspect of tubes or Analog media and the reason they like Analog or tubes is their naturality and immediacy.

every body who think Digital is better he can listen to David's Setup in Utah.
 
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