Are most Audiophiles hard of hearing?

No, a voice of reason and logic.
Different people experience sound differently. The problem comes when some seek to impose what they hear as a standard that everyone else must adhere to. As far as digital versus analog, I’ve always felt analog sounds more spacious, more three-dimensional, living and breathing. Digital sounds flatter by comparison, like frozen concentrate versus fresh squeezed, a facsimile. The latter part of the equation, digital, is something I’ve been working on with intention for the past 10 years: to isolate why it sounds flatter, and to correct this problem.
 
Refresh old, good CD transports and DACs and you'll get closer to analogue sound than you think.
Yes, old converter chips produce more noise and have less dynamic range, but distortion profile is more similar to analogue playback. There are more and more companies that are using old chips today. E.g. TDA1541/old burr brown paired with i/v conversation with tubes or transformers. Sounds fantastic when implemented correctly.
 
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As far as digital versus analog, I’ve always felt analog sounds more spacious, more three-dimensional, living and breathing. Digital sounds flatter by comparison, like frozen concentrate versus fresh squeezed, a facsimile. The latter part of the equation, digital, is something I’ve been working on with intention for the past 10 years: to isolate why it sounds flatter, and to correct this problem.

Rather than arguing with you, I will now spend some time listening to, and enjoying, my living and breathing, very spacious and three-dimensional digital, thank you very much.

If your digital isn't like that, it's just badly implemented.
 
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all 3 major formats are great, they all have +/-'s. I prefer vinyl, no question more enjoyable and more natural to me, followed by cd than streaming. problem with "audiophiles" is they are to worried auditioning gear instead of enjoying the music
 
This should have been a poll.
I definitely wish I had my current set up back when I was in my thirties.
A had about the same setup in my thirties, but prefer the more intimate relationship i have to my music now in my sixties, potential hearing loss be damned. :)
 
A had about the same setup in my thirties, but prefer the more intimate relationship i have to my music now in my sixties, potential hearing loss be damned. :)
I like the solution you have found for hearing loss. Very vintage!

BTW, do you have other ear horns tuned to different frequencies?
 
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I like the solution you have found for hearing loss. Very vintage!

BTW, do you have other ear horns tuned to different frequencies?
The Avatar picture is for mono listening, this one is for stereo. ;) IMG_3606.png
 
all 3 major formats are great, they all have +/-'s. I prefer vinyl, no question more enjoyable and more natural to me, followed by cd than streaming. problem with "audiophiles" is they are to worried auditioning gear instead of enjoying the music
AMEN!
 
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The question posed was which sample was the vinyl and which was the digital playback, I found it quite easy, what about you?
To start off, people are not putting any effort to listen to the recordings properly. Not bothering with listening to the wav audio in the description or at least listening on a proper device other than their iPads.
What they are interested in doing however, is jumping to all sorts of conclusions and making theoretical genius level audiophile remarks. I listened on proper headphones, can tell the difference from vinyl and digital despite Both being digital and on Youtube.
 
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To start off, people are not putting any effort to listen to the recordings properly. Not bothering with listening to the wav audio in the description or at least listening on a proper device other than their iPads.
What they are interested in doing however, is jumping to all sorts of conclusions and making theoretical genius level audiophile remarks. I listened on proper headphones, can tell the difference from vinyl and digital despite Both being digital and on Youtube.
You know this how?
 
I listened on proper headphones, can tell the difference from vinyl and digital despite Both being digital and on Youtube.
(Emphasis added.)

And you fail to see the contradiction?
 
(Emphasis added.)

And you fail to see the contradiction?
Where is the contradiction? Both playbacks are captured by a good but not great recorder (zoom H6) that's good enough to reveal some of the difference in SQ between the two, in this case the vinyl sounds better, in other cases the digital version might sound better.
 
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