Great article.

I had a progression to digital music and then back through analog... and back again.

First it was the Squeezebox Classic [1] - from a really remarkable startup. A hardware startup in 2000, with an open source software platform (SlimServer). For the price the DAC setup they had was remarkable. Really ahead of it's time.

Then I added the Benchmark DAC1 [2] to that, with a Cambridge Audio amplifier (solid-state, naturally). I was a major digital music nerd --
Hours spent using EAC [3] to extract CD. Hours spent finding (and downloading) unnecessarily high-detail 24bit 196khz FLACs.

Then, I fell in love with a tube amp I encountered online . The first re-release Macintosh MC275 [4]. So I bought that and removed the digital amp. There was plenty not to like. It took time to warm up, usually 10-15 minutes for the sound to really settle. Plus when you had to replace the tubes, you were shelling out big money. But the sound was warm and genuine. The amp bought personality, while not imposing on the music.

Still I was constantly having arguments with ardent analog friends, particularly given I had this warm, organic tube amp combined with a cold, digital setup. So I eventually gave vinyl a try. Definitely a less practical (and expensive) move, but I had the same warm experience. So I started switching to vinyl for any music I really treasured.

The move to analog also changed the music I treasured.

Unlike digital, analog listening was an experience. I'd get home in the evening, then immediately flick through the vinyl by hand. Choose an album, put it on. You didn't skip around. I got to enjoy full album experiences. It really turned into something of a ritual, a performance.

It changed the artists I enjoyed in ways I couldn't have expected. I loved putting on a Neil Young album and hearing the scratching of the guitar strings. Having a piece of jazz suddenly feel in the room with you.

The tracks I used to love standalone I came to find insubstantial -- and vice versa.

As I started traveling for work Spotify started to become more prominent. Beyond the portability the discoverability and sharing were amazing. I had playlist with friends, people I was dating long-distance. Discover Weekly turned up things I'd never have encountered otherwise. So suddenly all my music is on my phone, streamed, through earbuds.

In the end this drove me to getting a Sonos setup. Spotify was a big reason for this. However, the killer feature for me was the synchronized multi-room playing. This was originally for streaming and podcasts - but, inevitably I'm now listening to most of my music there too.

So this article really struck home. So much of what we do is the experience and context we wrap around it. It's really easy to focus on the quality or technicalities of the sound - but for me the difference between analog and digital goes so far beyond that.

All that said, I'll probably head off after this comment and put on a piece of dusty vinyl.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squeezebox_(network_music_play...

2. https://benchmarkmedia.com/products/benchmark-dac1-digital-t...

3. http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/

4. http://www.mcintoshlabs.com/us/Products/pages/ProductDetails...