Comparing directly like for like between a digital source input and a pure analogue source input, the two are physically completely different i.e. digital is a man-made non natural signal (made up of lots of zero's and one's to fit as near as possible sinusoidal wave forms of different frequencies) and pure analogue (made up of lots of natural sinusoidal wave forms of all of the frequencies in the music and non music spectrums that are captured from directly hearing i.e. a live performance to or from pure analogue recordings).
Notice the word 'pure', as this is very important in the analogue world, especially now companies are selling vinyl which just has digital based recordings i.e. not pure analogue copied / stamped onto the vinyl and people then thinking they are playing and listening to pure analogue music when in reality they are not.
No matter how accurate and how many mathematical formulae's are used to convert a digital music signal to an analogue signal with aiming to perfectly fit (curve fit) an analogue sine wave and keep to the musical timing etc. (that many DAC Designers & Manufacturers aim for as given in their marketing info etc.) it is not possible to mimic / copy ALL of the natural analogue sounds that we hear (and our brains are very sensitive to) including the non-musical sounds we hear especially at live performances. And this is just for one sine wave at one musical and non musical frequency. Imagine then having to curve fit & model multiple sine waves that cover all of the musical and non-musical frequencies you are hearing at the same time. Physically this is impossible to do no matter how powerful the digital computer is and how many mathematical formulas is trying to determine the sinusoidal curve fitting for multiple sine waves all at the same time.
Therefore, you will often hear the greater differences between digital and analogue source music when the music is very complicated (in terms of number of natural instruments being played at the same time where in the analogue world you hear all of the different natural and in reality the analogue sounds etc. from these instruments) and is a live recording where you can also hear the natural and in reality resonance frequencies etc. of the venue the music is being played in i.e. live classical music from a large orchestra in a large venue being one example where a well set-up analogue input system will sound more real than a digital input system.
However digital sources have become very popular with classical music listeners with one of the reasons (as well as digital being very convenient and of a more repeatable quality the source material comes from i.e. streaming or CDs vs vinyl) as they don't get the distractions from possible crackles and pops and record surface noise during the quiet passages as you get with a pure analogue input system. This has led to some people ditching their high-end analogue input set-up for a high end digital input set-up thinking they are getting a more superior sound which they may be hearing from being the digital sound being of a higher clarity with none of the distractions for the quiet pieces you get from an analogue input set-up.
The flip-side to this is, a well set-up analogue input system will always sound more natural and real sounding than digital input system.
If you can eradicate the distractions (ideally completely) you can be subjected to from a record i.e. the pops & crackles and record surface noise etc. during quiet passages you will have (to my ears) a much more natural and enjoyable sound.
I am going through this journey myself (i.e. reducing / eliminating the pops & crackles and record surface noise etc) as I mainly listen through my headphone system which is highly sensitive to such noises with increasing my record cleaning regime (to include ultrasonic cleaning on top of my Keith Monks RCM cleaning) and eliminating static to a minimum when playing my records.
Also another major disadvantage with records themselves is the often 'pot luck' in buying a record that is well pressed, has no surface damage, not excessively warped etc. Then you also have to make sure your TT, tonearm, and cartridge are optimally set-up to get the best sound possible from them which is far more rigorous and more expensive (especially with set-up tools and accessories etc.) than say a PC used for streaming or a CD Transporter or Player.
However even with these disadvantages for vinyl play-back I still listen to my vinyl collection (which is also rapidly growing a lot quicker than my CD & SACD collection) 90 to 95% of the time compared to my CD collection as (to my ears) it is a much more enjoyable listening experience. I also love to tinker, so the setting up of a TT system I enjoy, and I enjoy the many steps ritual of putting a record on the platter and playing it whilst I look at the lovely artwork or write-ups you get on the album covers. And for me that say's it all !
Just my two pennies worth on this very interesting topic for discussion.
feeling validated by all those clinking glasses and atmos
