Devi + Vinyl

[f1eng]

I don't think we cheat ourselves for the following reasons.

1. The A/D process done right, even at 16 bits, never mind 24 bits provides ample headroom to support the dynamic range of what vinyl is capable of. In my experience, and many others as well- modern A/D converters that are well implemented are transparent.

2. The Devialet does RIAA equalization in the digital domain, where it can be implemented +/- 0 DB flat. In the analog domain, there is no such thing. There will always be deviation from the true spec.

3. The digital domain allows for SAM and RAM, two features that are not realistic in the analog domain. Both of these have enormous potential for huge audible gains, much more so than a loss theoretical loss from converting from analog to digital.

You cannot take a single facet of the Expert platform, in this case how analog/phono is handled and criticize it on its own. You need to understand and appreciate what digital as a whole is bringing to the entire platform and then ask yourself if avoiding that extra A/D conversion is enough to warrant doing away with all of the  cumulative gains that digitizing the analog signal brings to the table.

We enjoy a noiseless and lossless volume control, powerful DSP, microprocessor controlled everything and the most elegant design and footprint in the history of HiFi.

The phono sounds damn good too!

Of course, I take all those points into consideration. Moreover, I do not say that nowadays digital domain is not able to transmit the entire analog sound spectrum - I think yes, it is (however some of vinyl lovers will not agree with me).

My doubt is whether it makes sense to play the music this way - buy/collect vinyls?... unless you already have them.
So far, you've had a chance to be in touch with "live", analog music and equipment, that sometimes souned better because ...  was "analog". Now, its difficult to show the "added values" (as long as you play through Devi) . At the end of the day, analog tracks sound as good as digital A-D-A converter lets them.

I can promise you that there is noting "better" about any analogue method available if accuracy is the goal.
There is a notable loss of accuracy going from any master, be it reel-to-reel tape or digital, to a manufacturable, playable LP. There is nothing new in this, it was perfectly well known and excepted when I worked in that industry in the 1970s.
I love my LPs, and have hundreds since I have been buying them for 50 years. It just so happens that, with the exception of speed stability and mistracking, all the colourations added in the process of manufacturing and playing LPs are euphonic to somebody, and they are so many and varied that anybody can tune them to their taste.
Well engineered digital is transparent, so a listener is stuck with the sound the recording engineer mixed, not everybody's taste.

In my later career designing Formula 1 racing cars there was no analogue recording method for on board data accurate enough to be useful, even though in both dynamic range and high frequencies this data was less exigent than music. In fact that side of things was either impossible or a huge amount of work for little data before digital methods came along.
The earliest digital recorders were pretty good. The main thing that has changed since the early 80s has been kit getting cheaper and cheaper.
It is worth reading this old (1984) report from the Boston Audio society IMHO:

http://www.bostonaudiosociety.org/bas_sp...sting2.htm

It is a shame so few enthusiasts have done any recording themselves since if one has, and knows the difference between microphone feed and output of the recorder, any idea that analogue is transparent is immediately debunked.
It is amusing to note that one of the most popular filters used in mixing by members of the user group of the digital recorder I use is a plug-in which emulates the colouration of a reel-to-reel tape recorder...

I am completely sure personally that what I enjoy about my LPs is the fortunate combination of euphonic colourations inherent in them, and that using a digital system for RIAA correction can't lose anything at all. I have 4 record players, love them all and they all sound different.