Analog vs Digital

Without further ado, introducing the down and dirty guide to analog vs digital! The whole analog vs digital thing could go a couple of different ways, and we'll briefly hit a couple of them.

What does it mean to be digital and what does it mean to be analog?
Well, they are both ways of encoding information. Digital lends itself to computers and other electronic equipment by recording information into 1's and 0's. This data can then be read by electronic instruments and then produced into something familiar we can understand such as words, picture or sound.

Analog on the other hand is comprised of continuous and variable electrical waves that represent an infinite number of values. I know what you're saying : "Blah blah blah". Think of it like this, (and mind you this is a very rough analogy), if sound was recorded digitally, it is made into 0s and 1s right? Those 0s and 1s represent all the little bits of a sound. When you put them together you get a full sound. Analog records sound just as it hears it, it doesn't break it down into all these separate pieces...it's CONTINUOUS.

What does this mean to you?
I dunno...I guess it depends on where you're coming from. From an alleged "true audiophile", digital doesn't give you the same experience as analog when it pertains to audio? Why? Well, (to rephrase the above), an audiophile views a digital recording more as an imitation of the original rather than the real thing. Analog sound on the other hand basically records sound as it produced, evidently giving a deeper richer representation of the original. Will you be able to tell a difference?...Maybe maybe not.

Conclusion
As we become more computerized, everything is going digital, and why not? Digital offers a lot of improvements over analog, so much so that we shouldn't even be having the conversation. Honestly, besides the whole sound issue, it's not even a competition. Look for a much deeper article about this whole subject to arise soon.

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