Analogue or digital?

Mind boggling, isn’it. I mean all that fuss in the specialized press about digital versus analogue and vice versa. I’ve been an ardent digitalian myself, having replaced the bulk of my LPs collection with their CD reissues. And yet… and yet. For one thing there is a proposition I’ve never happened to see aired by the specialists: sound is analogue, right? In a modern recording today (digital of course) voices are analogue, musical instruments are analogue, ambient sound in the recording venue is analogue; even mikes feeding the digital monster are analogue. So where does digital enter in real life? In storing. Not reproduction. Reproduction reverts to analogue through your amp and loudspeakers. Right? And your ears are analogously transmitting sound into your head. So analogue is the word, analogue is the real situation here. As it usually happens with technical people (who are seldom musical too) admiration and hype of a new medium (or method) is lopsided. The two work together. Because analogue – as a means of sound storage – proved disastrous. Here digital wins hand down. Yes, LPs were dearer things to hold in your hand, to look and to read on their backside. And the LP itself, all alive with its grooves giving a visual idea of what was on it, was nicer to look at too. But then, to think of all these old LPs, getting worse year after year, no matter how much attention you paid to their handling and storing… sad indeed. Let’s recapitulate. Analogue for recording and listening – will you or won’t you. And digital for the safe storage. Yep. That’s it. All else is gaslight, as that horrible man said. (And then, no matter how high tech decks, amps & speakers you listen with, reproduction - digital or analogue - is reproduction, i.e. a substitute for the real thing.)