Analog equipment has more dimension to it.
I mostly use digital equipment because I use a digital synthesizer most of the time and because that's what gets the job done fast and there are lots of options in that world, but analog has a richer sound. This is because the sound waves recorded on an analog system don't have a rigid step from one point to the next. With the digital sound available on a normal 16-bit audio CD, there are only 65536 different values a wave can have from minimum to maximum. My ears can here this limitation. It makes the sound thin and gives it that “digital sound” some people complain about. With analog there’s an almost infinite amount of different values from minimum to maximum, not a fixed amount of options. This is what makes analog sound so “warm” and “natural”. When listening to analog music, the ears are hearing something that mimics a real sound wave with smooth movement from one point to the next. With digital music, the ears are hearing rigid movements from one point to the next.
A digital jump in a wave would be like this if moving up just 3 points over a short period of time:
0
0
0
1
1
1
2
2
2
3
The same jump in analog would be more like this:
0.000000000000000000000
0.000099812748289390005
0.012918023563248573489
1.009288543244586937205
1.304928379300487256437
1.832985029395748960483
2.001029810504888574345
2.339280590384834378444
2.789392890044543098509
3.000000000000000000000
Because the shift from 0-3 is smoother with analog, it has a warmer sound.
I mostly use digital equipment because I use a digital synthesizer most of the time and because that's what gets the job done fast and there are lots of options in that world, but analog has a richer sound. This is because the sound waves recorded on an analog system don't have a rigid step from one point to the next. With the digital sound available on a normal 16-bit audio CD, there are only 65536 different values a wave can have from minimum to maximum. My ears can here this limitation. It makes the sound thin and gives it that “digital sound” some people complain about. With analog there’s an almost infinite amount of different values from minimum to maximum, not a fixed amount of options. This is what makes analog sound so “warm” and “natural”. When listening to analog music, the ears are hearing something that mimics a real sound wave with smooth movement from one point to the next. With digital music, the ears are hearing rigid movements from one point to the next.
A digital jump in a wave would be like this if moving up just 3 points over a short period of time:
0
0
0
1
1
1
2
2
2
3
The same jump in analog would be more like this:
0.000000000000000000000
0.000099812748289390005
0.012918023563248573489
1.009288543244586937205
1.304928379300487256437
1.832985029395748960483
2.001029810504888574345
2.339280590384834378444
2.789392890044543098509
3.000000000000000000000
Because the shift from 0-3 is smoother with analog, it has a warmer sound.
