Paul McGowan Prefers Digital

[PeterA]

Peter, I would bet a likely reason your friends turned over their DACs more than TT setups is because digital is improving faster (and has more room to improve) versus analog. It may have nothing to do with satisfaction if that's what you are implying.

I agree that digital has more room to improve. We have read many reports though, and recently, that digital is extremely satisfying and yet, the search continues for something ever more satisfying.

My earlier comment was really in response to the cost thing. Someone wrote that good digital is half the cost of good analog or something. Well, if I keep my analog for a long time, and another guy keeps changing his DAC, those changes can add up. My point being, that I wonder if people actually save much money in the longer term if they keep changing DACs compared to the vinyl alternative. It is an open question for me.

Some of the digital companies are responding to the technology changing and offer modular designs. I think dCS and MSB do this. That might be less expensive in the long term than constantly changing DACs from different companies searching for improvements or change. I don't know the answer to that.

And yes, some guys buy cartridges every year or so and those can cost more than many DACs. As I wrote earlier, it's a personal thing.

 

[Al M.]

Not speaking for Ron per se but I could have written “...that is why I have an iPad, YouTube and headphones” - not saying that the latter is any representation of remotely good digital but that is how I personally consume my digital nowadays. Not saying it is the correct path but my critical hifi listening is limited and I need a source that immediately disconnects me from reality and that is achieved better on analogue (hence why I sold my dac etc). I love spending time listening to music on iPad/YouTube though - just different consumption.

That's how I do all my streaming, on YouTube. For listening at high sound quality, physical spinning of CDs.

 

[Audiophile Bill]

That's how I do all my streaming, on YouTube. For listening at high sound quality, physical spinning of CDs.

Yeah I understand and makes sense. It amazes me how much pleasure I get from iPad / headphones discovering stuff - seemingly no need for fidelity at all lol.

 

[Joe Whip]

Obviously, fidelity is important but I don’t need it to enjoy music. I loved music listening on a transitor radio as a kid.

 

[Joe Whip]

Speaking of you tube, check out the Ray Brown Trio Live in Wien. All 7 parts. Ray on bass, Monty Alexander on piano and Herb Ellis on guitar. Shown on tv in Austria in 1988. This is a great find.

 

[the sound of Tao]

But it's not really necessary to keep chasing the digital unicorn.

My Eera cdp from 2009 remains a totally convincing experience. If only it had a Digital In, I'd use it alongside cdp duties as a dac for future streaming option.

There is no need to chase the dragon.

So the unicorn is digital and the dragon analogue? I suppose a unicorn is sometimes a bit awkward and yet to completely fulfil its tantalising magical promise (much like a horse with a stonkin big digit stuck on its forehead) and a dragon does move grandly somewhat like a waveform and though it may have at times been quite the endangered species but then forever refuses to just give up and forget that it is dragon.

 

[spiritofmusic]

Tao, you're even more warped than me. Yes, unicorns, aka "perfect sound forever".

 

[the sound of Tao]

Not speaking for Ron per se but I could have written “...that is why I have an iPad, YouTube and headphones” - not saying that the latter is any representation of remotely good digital but that is how I personally consume my digital nowadays. Not saying it is the correct path but my critical hifi listening is limited and I need a source that immediately disconnects me from reality and that is achieved better on analogue (hence why I sold my dac etc). I love spending time listening to music on iPad/YouTube though - just different consumption.

The Chord m scaler I have now has video in so it can upsample YouTube 44.1 up to to 706khz ... sounds great to the audiophile in me but latency is the killer and lip synch is worse than even Milli Vanilli so music loving me just sticks with the video low res.

 

[the sound of Tao]

Tao, you're even more warped than me. Yes, unicorns, aka "perfect sound forever".

Lol one day the unicorns will become Pegasus (uhmm my name means horse) the creature born when Perseus (light) cuts open the head of the Medusa (darkness) and creates absolute freedom (streaming)... errr have I gone too far??

 

[Ron Resnick]

Ron insists on Spotify, so he can always say w no irony that analog can never be beaten.

A truism if ever there was one. Morphs nicely into the thread about there being no good new music. 'Cause it's all on Spotify.

Another gross mischaracterization. Your promise to stop wasting that hour a day of mine didn’t last very long.

 

[spiritofmusic]

Er Ron, you need to locate yr SOH. Try spending that hour a day finding it.

 

[Ron Resnick]

I never understand your homemade abbreviations.

 

[spiritofmusic]

Sorry Ron, that's a couple of hours a day wasted deciphering me.
I thought SOH was universally known as Sense Of Humour.

 

[NorthStar]

Music matters a lot, Bob. But this hobby is often about more than just the music. It can also be about learning about sound, learning about gear, traveling to hear other peoples systems and make new friends, ask Kedar. It is about chatting on forums to share your views or learn from others. It is about chasing goals and improving our systems. It is about making your own gear, making value choices to get a better musical experience than you thought possible given your budget. It is about format wars.

Love for music is what we share in common, but the delivery of that music, and how we think of that, is also a big part of this hobby. It is all deeply personal.

It's also about pictures we like. It's about love, it's about life, yes Peter. It's about everything we are passionate about, what we care about, people and their home...planet Earth, and the conquest of space, the discoveries, the advancement, the knowledge and the wisdom.

 

[microstrip]

I agree that digital has more room to improve. We have read many reports though, and recently, that digital is extremely satisfying and yet, the search continues for something ever more satisfying.
(...)

Peter,

Digital is extremely satisfying since long, not recently. For me the Metronome Kalista/C2A (around 2006) made the turnover, but even the Forsell CD player and DAC combo was extremely satisfying. IMHO we are now at a point that sound engineering at the recording process it the key for our preference.

Surely we can pick any reports we want to support our opinions, and in all aspects of sound reproduction the search will always continue as long we have people interested in this hobby and people supplying new equipment. It is intrinsic to need of optimization of sound reproduction.

 

[Ron Resnick]

Kedar knows I am not exaggerating about my preference for analog. He observed during joint auditions that I seem not to relax when digital is playing. He is correct.

However, that was a couple of years ago. For the record I do relax when I listen to an MSB DAC.

 

[PeterA]

It's also about pictures we like. It's about love, it's about life, yes Peter. It's about everything we are passionate about, what we care about, people and their home...planet Earth, and the conquest of space, the discoveries, the advancement, the knowledge and the wisdom.

I don't know about all of that Bob. I was just responding to your comment that "it is all about the music". I actually think the hobby is about the music and for many about more than just the music. Planet Earth?

 

[NorthStar]

Music for me is like a picture album, I feel relax viewing a picture album with a piano playing.
I'm @ my best...inner peace.

Yes planet Earth. I love nature pictures of our planet; mountains, wildlife, people from everywhere, music from everywhere, music is a moving picture in my mind, an emotional photograph taken in places that remind me of other places and faces.

We all have sweet memories, moments in time, when listening to our music in our own space.
I do, that's one of my deepest passions in life. Music makes me want to paint, to dance, to take pictures, to watch films, to observe nature. That's what it does to me, it inspires me to create, to live, to share the joy of life in pictures and in melodies.

 

[sbo6]

Kedar knows I am not exaggerating about my preference for analog. He observed during joint auditions that I seem not to relax when digital is playing. He is correct.

However, that was a couple of years ago. For the record I do relax when I listen to an MSB DAC.

What happens when you listen to your car radio? Or phone with earbuds? Or computer audio? Is your life filled with no relaxation?

 

[Ron Resnick]

What happens when you listen to your car radio? Or phone with earbuds? Or computer audio? Is your life filled with no relaxation?

I don’t expect to have a relaxation response when I listen to those casual or background sources of music the way I do when I listen in a focused, dedicated way to a high-end system.