I‘ve been pursuing hi-fi perfection for not much short of 50 years and I would agree that emotional response is far more readily available via analog than it is via digital. There seems to be something about digital that when present robs the system of its magic.
I have taken a digital streaming system to the point that many would consider ludicrous….for example £3000 power supplies on £200 routers But when that system is on song I get the most intense feelings I have ever experienced, anywhere. But add a new cable or upgrade a power supply and while i can consciously detect differences in sound that mainly sound like improvements the intense feelings and big hits to my ‘pleasure centres’ just disappear…..and they stay gone until the system has fully run-in….to the point I sometimes start to feel anxious that I may have done something to permanently lose that magic…then one day its back….I really can’t say what’s improved particularly, just that the music ’feels‘ right and has this ‘gorgeous‘ quality that sends shivers down my back….Just don‘t ask me to describe the intense emotions in typical hi-fi terms.
While my vinyl set ups never reached the intensity I now experience, the magic was more uniformly available and far less delicate and ‘ephemeral’.
My money is on my analogue LP (throw digital to vinyl LPs in the garbage) playback system, however I do have a Naim Unity Star for streaming music while having supper. Problem. When I first purchased the Naim, one was able to listen to user supported internet radio. I refuse to get locked into a perpetual payments contract so sent £500 in one go to a station I listen to quite a bit. Another station, West Norfolk Radio, we thought good as they played varied and interesting stuff not heard every day, but also Northern Soul on Fridays that we like as well. It is local as we live in Norfolk, but they suddenly stopped and I can no longer access them on the Naim unit. I looked them up on the internet to see what happened. Apparently, they drew us in with free internet radio at first, now we can only hear that station if we rent the app. Perpetual payment plan.
LPs are bought and owned. I have some older than me (67). All the information is in the grooves and one needs only to improve playback equipment in order to improve the listening experience. When digital arrived, Philips and Sony tried to put vinyl out of business. After folks realised that CDs sounded worse than LPs, they improved jitter and anti-aliasing performance which improved digital listening, but enough to beat LPs? LP diehards continued to buy vinyl and saved the industry from total annihilation, but then something fishy happened. LPs cut from digital recordings, the worst of both worlds (Sony is certainly responsible for some of that). But high quality analogue LPs are still being pressed by specialist dealers like Analogue Productions and the lovers of analogue are still spending their money on LPs. Sony invents the SACD with higher byte size and faster sampling rate to compete, but this has consequences for those who spent $ thousands on their CDs and digital playback systems (DAC's, etc). Those caught up in digital now have to decide, do they live with the sound of CDs, or do they scrap their CDs and equipment and replace it all with SACDs and the necessary ancillaries needed to play such? Then another step up in resolution, but streamers can handle that so that the listener just has to buy a streamer that can play all the new formats, no need to purchase all new software, again, as long as willing to give up on choice and just listen to what the streamers are streaming. As I did with my Naim unit. But now West Norfolk Radio requires subscription through a special app.
Am I seeing the writing on the wall? Will all the internet radio stations I currently enjoy on my Naim unit suddenly disappear, only to be subscribed to after purchasing the specific app for my iPhone? Will I have to junk my Naim device?
I am so glad I own LPs and a great playback system. I don't have to pay anyone for the privilege of listening to whatever I want whenever I want (and my electricity is supported by photovoltaic cells on my roof too).
