On the other hand, it requires digital, ADC and DAC. And I may be crazy but it seems to me that there is still some intangible quality in a full analog PA system that disappears in pretty much all recordings as well as when there is a digital mixing console or DSP-corrected loudspeakers in the mix.
You are not crazy! I agree with you regarding 100% analog reproduction or music, versus a digital source - or a source with digital processing stages. My system sounds best when all digital devices are powered-off, the platter of the TT is running at 33.33 RPM... and the needle is in the groove. The stylus on my phono cartridge rides high in the groove by design, and on a clean record background noise is non-existent. A great LP can sound
mind-bendingly real at decent volume levels on my system. I am lucky. This has been nearly a fifty year project for me, and a LOT of gear has come in, spent time, and left for new homes... I just wish that I'd kept the Sony TA-5650; I'd love to hear it next to Ragnarok 2 today!
Regarding DSP: FWIW, I don't think that the efficacy of good 'ol passive physical (a.k.a.
Art Noxon-style) room treatments can
ever be fully replaced by DSP, but not bc the tech isn't capable. The DSP algorithms and filters can calculate a near-perfect solution for a single listening position. It can do amazing things, and I understand that it can work even better if your head is shaped like a microphone <j/k>. I have the luxury to do the room treatment thing, so I'm just going to shut up and enjoy my situation, and esp. the situation that happens when Listening In Another Room...
omg there are two people playing guitars downstairs, et al...
I have yet to hear True Multibit, not to mention with equally non-approximate math on the ADC side. I wonder if that might do it, really retain the magic that otherwise seems to go missing when going digital... and if it does not, what understanding of digital representation of sound we're still missing.
What you describe as that
intangible quality is still there - I
promise you that the magic is still in there. It's in a well-engineered recording, and the right digital signal chain can deliver it. I believe that you owe it to yourself to seek out and hear a Schiit True Multibit DAC. Listen to Sara K's
Water Falls on the Stockfisch digital masters, via a Bifrost or a Yggy. Your jaw will drop.
As much as I love analog, I am old and lazy, and occasionally busy doing ridiculous things, so... digital is easier. As the quest continues, I took the opportunity last week to bring my digital source chain "
one step closer" to my analog setup. I upgraded my streamer from the manufacturer's "G1" model, bought in late 2020, to their "G2.2" model. The sonic difference (
both devices connected to Yggy MiB via a 0.6m SilverSonic DH-110 AES/EBU cable) is
stunning. The new streamer delivers a palpably smoother presentation, with a schiit-ton more "air" across the board. Within two minutes of listening to the G2.2, I had to stop and swap the G1 back in to make sure that I wasn't losing my mind.
The G1 is headed back to the manufacturer (
for a very gracious trade-in value, thank you!) and I'm not looking back.
Listening to the new streamer in "LIAR mode" today; I'm in the office upstairs and the downstairs system is playing at a medium level. It almost sounds like a LP up here, without the need to run downstairs every 12-20 minutes to flip a disk.
The LPs are reserved for later this evening, and
@sixergixer will be here...
in spirit. So happy that I'm into this Schiit.