The reasoning behind this is that it is (I hope you can agree) easily
demonstrable that CD and SS together produce an output which is -
objectively - far closer to what the pianist produced than vinyl and
valves can even hope to be.

I don't think this can be easily agreed - that's the point. Tony Faulkner, the
last time I spoke to him, was using a digital front end but valve amps to play
back master tapes. He supplies masters to the industry. Others claim they hear
nuances on vinyl they don't hear on CD. If by objective you mean measured
distortion, then there will be those (from Hiraga on) who will argue the
relevance of the measurement parameters. If by subjective we mean, for
instance, a pianist who plays a piano all day every day of his life and says
"this here sounds more like my piano" do we dismiss his expertise just because
we chuck it the bin labelled 'subjective'?

=== Andy Evans ===
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