Last year I switched from listening to digitally sourced music to listening to analog sources (vinyl). I made a switch out of curiosity, after reading how many people claim that vinyl beats digital. To be honest, I was expecting that vinyl playback will end up being quaint, a little bit nostalgic, but nowhere near as good as proper digital setup.

Much to my surprise, my vinyl rig delivered sound that was in no way lagging behind the digital reproduction. Then, after I got accustomed to vinyl, I started doing side-by-side comparisons. Again, much to my surprise, I found that often times vinyl sounded better (or, preferable) to my ears. I became a vinyl aficionado after experiencing that difference.

So I started slowly working on improving my turntable etc. Fast forward to the present time, and I now think I have a turntable setup that is better than what I had last year. I've invested in a better phono, better tonearm, better cabling, replaced spherical stylus with nude elliptical, tweaked my turntable, the whole nine yards.

So I decided to do side-by-side comparison with the digital again. I was now expecting that my new analog front end will absolutely blow the digital out of the water.

Much to my shock, that didn't happen! As a matter of fact, now my analog and my digital playback sound very, very similar. It's as if the gap, that I experienced last year, has all but closed.

So my conclusion is that as you keep improving your analog front end, you are approximating the sound of a good digital front end. This, to me, means that a good hi fi system (regardless of whether it's analog or digital) is actually approaching the sound one can find on the master tape.

Has anyone else experienced this interesting convergence?