So I'll just throw out what's always been my problem with digital... When the sample rate is at 44.1, and therefore the highest frequency reproduced is 22.5 KHz, you do lose a lot of the upper harmonic information that, while we don't hear it directly, does produce beat notes further down in the frequency spectrum, and which we can hear. I think it's this missing information that always makes digital sound a bit less real to me.
That said, I've got digital and analog recordings that sound great, and others of each that sound lousy. It's as much about the engineering and production behind the recording as the technology used to record and play it. But my best analog stuff still sounds better than the best digital stuff. This is purely my fully subjective opinion.
And that said, I think the article comes at the problem from entirely the wrong direction, starts with the wrong set of assumptions about what makes listening to music enjoyable, and uses an appeal to authority as its anchor. But I do believe, if the 64kb ipod listening kids and streaming don't kill the high-end gear market, that digital will eventually give a more life-like playback of music than the current best analog gear. I just don't think we're quite there yet.
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