Is analog the new digital - vinyl's comeback continues

I didn't read through this yet -- I hyperskimmed -- but it brings to mind an experience with varying quality in digital media reproduction that has stuck with me.

Many years ago, I had the opportunity to evaluate a low end Philips reference CD player (I believe it was termed; reference, as in high quality reproduction, but not at the extreme end of that product category where the cost of all the marketing bullet points really adds up) against varying competing models. The Philips really stood out. Same disk, same amp and speakers. But the Philips was much better at reproducing "the edge" of notes, and the slight scrape of the bow, etc. that the competing players muddied into an undifferentiated, overall note.

Whatever the recording medium, the quality of the circuitry translating the recorded signal back to its acoustic reproduction makes a telling difference.

I think the $10K, 20 kilogram turntables and whatnot are overkill, but digital recordings can suffer in part because many of the players, while "digitally perfect" nonetheless do a crappy, cheap job of generating the final analog output.

Unfortunately, there's so much hype and marketing, for me at least it is frustrating to determine how much is enough while avoiding the extremes of audiophile addiction. And then there is also the variation in perception of individual listeners.

And trying to evaluate a piece of equipment for yourself in most commercial retail settings is nigh impossible. Too noisy, and it also matters what amp and speakers the signal's feeding into -- not just in some overall measure of quality, but also with regard to the fitting together of the individual components.

Anyway, it's not just digital vs. analog. It's also how the signal's being handled.

But the blogpost is arguing that it is the tangibility of vinyl that is its savior, comobined with good sense of record labels to also provide the download...