Can digital compete in sound quality with vinyl?

[Masterlu]

[bart]

^^^^Which one is digital Ivan?!

[djwhog]

MaryAnn or Ginger?

[crwilli]

Originally Posted by djwhog

MaryAnn or Ginger?

Yes

[Mouse]

I wasn't trying to make a statement or claim by asking a rhetorical question. I really wanted to know.

In a Mc room, it was night/day difference. Digital sounded horrid by comparison.

I went to a different dealer and heard a boulder system, with an air force (3?) turntable and used a chord hugo dac (not sure which version). It's no longer night/day in this system comparison, and I'm learning more about the flavor.
In this room, digital was a tad more dynamic, and vinyl sounded a tad more realistic and more relaxing/natural, but it wasn't extreme. I could probably be A/B tested if the preamp was going back and forth between both formats on the same song enough, but I wouldn't be as confident on this system.

After a while of listening, my friendly sales guy told me not to pay attention to how it sounds, but pay attention to how I feel when I'm listening. Oddly my ears don't like digital as much. Despite the song sounding so close in my brain, my outer ear felt tense in a flinched like state on the digital. My outer ears relaxed on vinyl back into its natural state. I was explained that an analog sound wave is smooth, where a digital sound wave has a jagged curve. Maybe an even better DAC and the phenomena will go away. I'm mostly here to learn.

[Jack F]

I am getting the Mc system I inherited up and running and have been playing some old vinyl from my 50 year old collection. Sounds pretty good except for all the pops.

P.S. I know the above means nothing, I am new here and need to get 10 posts in before I can start a new thread.

Jack

[W9TR]

As I improve my digital front end it sounds more and more like my vinyl front end. It cost 1/4 as much.

There is no way a $3000 vinyl setup can compete with what many would consider my entry level digital setup.

I’ve been tweaking the vinyl rig for 30 years or so and I have all the test gear and knowledge to get the best possible performance out of it. I also have found a preference in high mass ‘tables and linear carbon fiber uni-pivot arms.

The digital journey has been similar - find a general ‘flavor’ I like, and start tweaking it to get the best performance possible.

I have found a multi-bit converter fed by a good usb cable and dedicated battery operated server gives me the best digital performance so far.

I’m currently working on cleaning up all the EMI/RFI that kind of tags along with a digital setup. Lots to learn.