The old Digital / Analogue question

[Fretless]

Sometimes on Facebook you get into the war-zone between rival factions who are screaming and shouting that their Digital or Vinyl source is so much better than the 'other side' and that the opposition's system is total rubbish. This 'Us and Them' (spot the subtle Pink Floyd reference there!) thinking is actually pretty pointless in the current age where the younger generation do most of their listening on noise-cancelling, Bluetooth Airpods streamed via Spotify.



In fact, I wonder if any of that Next Generation of music-lovers bothers with a forum like HFS, populated by ageing fuddy-duddys (speaking for myself, of course) who grew up with the LP and witnessed the cold digital audio dawn with the advent of CD. Do the youth of today give a flying flip about Sound Quality or will they just want the new Billie Eilish toon with as much bass as is physically possible?

And that whilst sporting the latest fashion accessory from Apple as prominently as they can for a glamour-post on Insta-Tok.

Yes, there is a fresh wave of interest in 'Vinyl' but then preferably on a 'design' turntable wirelessly connected to tiny Bluetooth speakers. Looks cool, sounds crap - but they don't know or care.



The music-consumers of today were brought up with unlimited songs on demand, coming straight from internet and to be listened to where and whenever you like. Digital is the standard, with highly-compressed and lossy streams, mangled via wireless connections into heavily EQ'd earbuds. Almost makes me want to cry.

I love listening to my my LP's and CD's, portable DAPs and whatever. Choosing the format that most reflects my mood or requirement at that moment. The advances in digital audio processing have levelled the playing-field between digital and vinyl playback - the latter being now more a reliving of past nostalgia, lovingly handling a relic of a bygone age with the familiar crackles and hisses of yore.

[savvypaul]

For me, both are enjoyable... but in subtly different ways.

[CycleCoach]

A decent playlist on mp3 and bluetoothed to the sound system in my local pub still hits the spot when it's all about the tunes, but not about purity of sound.
And convenient because all I need is my phone.
My preference for serious listening is still (just) vinyl, but if I didn't already have the turntable etc, I certainly wouldn't be going down that path.
Upsampled digital is so close now I could definitely live with it.

[CN211276]

I read with amusement the debates about analogue and digital on forums. The all important point which is usually missed is the quality of mastering. I believe many prefer vinyl because there is less compression. 8 Bit vinyl on a decent tt will sound better than brickwalled 24 Bit 192kHz digital. Digital has come a long way in the past 40 years and all things being equal my opinion is that it has moved ahead providing it is upsampled with good power supplies and filtering. If the system is good enough WAV brings about an improvement over FLAC.

I have been all digital for some time now having never spent big money on a tt. I consider vinyl to be prohibitively expensive, added to the pops and crackles. There is also the convenience factor. I can control everything from my phone whether it is the three systems at home, headphones in the garden or out and about and ear buds on public transport. I play music transferred to a flash drive in the car.