I think I am in the 'hi-fidelity' camp on this. Yes, the term audiophile has become associated with 'euphonics', over a period of time. I do think though that vinyl lovers do not necessarily fall under that euphonic category. I have a MMF-5 turntable and I feel it is one of the most transparent sounding sources I have had. It is very difficult to get that kind of transparency from digital. I think it is mostly related to actually recreating the sound physically (you can hear the sound when you are close when the amp is off) and just picking it up and amplifying it - more like a mic feed. Some say, it is not a accurate reproduction, but if you take a same analog recording - one cut to LP and another sampled, I think you might prefer the LP, for a reasonably priced system. Similarly, some feel that 'solid-state' does not truly recreate the waveforms like tubes and have a preference for the thermionic emission of the tubes. Apparently, any distortion the tubes create is harmonically related and is not damaging. After a while, people just start preferring the distortion itself and go after 'euphonic colorations' in their system. In my case, I have the 'listen from another room test'. Can I tell what is playing outside, another room is a real instrument or not ? For eg, I hear somebody playing the drums in a distant home, when I am going for a jog. No mistaking a real direct sound. Of course, it is difficult to recreate that with audio equipment, different musical instruments product different frequencies, but a speaker has to produce them all (of course, you have woofer, tweeter etc still). I think everything in the chain in a stereo system contributes/affects the sound. I like to keep it to a minium. I ran with my Panasonic digital amplifier for quite some time and then 'upgraded' to the TACT. For others, who like to use DAC/amp, I suggest going after a preamp-less system if you can deal with the number of source. Many DACs now come with preamp capabilities (source selection, volume control) and while doing doing AD, it can also do the volume adjustments and hence reduce one component/connection in the chain.
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