Realistic sound = tubes and analogue

[Feanor]

I'm starting another thread as instructed. IMO, ss and digital flatten sound, reduce micro dynamics, and reduce music's tonal saturation. The best digital formats are getting better, but, despite being a pain in the ass, for now, I'm sticking to tubes and vinyl for serious listening. I hated all the digital based systems at the California audio Show, except for the Audio Note one. Both Audio Note CD players (one $5,500, one $9,500) had plenty of tonal saturation. I want to hear more from these units.

I have a tube preamp and a more tubey than typical sounding s/s amp -- so OK. We won't debate here whether "tonal saturation" is really just excessive 2nd order harmonic distortion.

As for analog vs. digital, it's pretty much a non-issue for me because virtually none of the music I listen to (classical) is available in anything but digital nowadays.

The non-oversampling, non-filtered AN DACs might sound nice but $5k much less $9.5k are absurd on my budget. Maybe I'll try one of the non-oversampling, non-filtered $150 Chinese knock-offs just for fun, but the word is that NOS has punchy bass but relatively poor resolution.

[blackraven]

I have a tube preamp and a more tubey than typical sounding s/s amp -- so OK. We won't debate here whether "tonal saturation" is really just excessive 2nd order harmonic distortion.

As for analog vs. digital, it's pretty much a non-issue for me because virtually none of the music I listen to (classical) is available in anything but digital nowadays.

The non-oversampling, non-filtered AN DACs might sound nice but $5k much less $9.5k are absurd on my budget. Maybe I'll try one of the non-oversampling, non-filtered $150 Chinese knock-offs just for fun, but the word is that NOS has punchy bass but relatively poor resolution.

Try a Van Alstine Tube or Hybrid DAC for about $1500! And my system with both a hybrid DAC and Preamp along with my SS amp has a nice analog sound.

An I agree with Pops, Marantz CD players have a very unique analog sound and their reference series are great.