Since the first publication of digital sound recordings listeners have disagreed over the respective sound quality of analog and digital sound.

Briefly, an analog recording is a mechanical representation of the original sound encoded on a substrate such as the groove of a gramophone disc or the magnetic field of a magnetic tape. The reproduction of the sound will reflect the nature of the substrate and any imperfections on its surface.

A digital recording, on the other hand is produced by encoding the original sound as digital information which can then be decoded for reproduction. It does not include the surface sound of the disc or tape, although it is subject to noise and imperfections in capturing the original sound. A damaged digital medium, such as a scratched compact disc may also yield degraded reproduction of the original sound, due to the loss of some digital information in the damaged area (but not due directly to the physical damage of the disc).

Many people claim that the analog sound is "truer" because it is not reconstructed. They claim that digital sound simply does not sound as natural to them. Others claim that digital is more natural because it is not subject to the same imperfections as an analog medium. And some suggest that analog is technically of lower quality than digital but sounds subjectively better. For the general listener, however, there appears at present to be no simple way of demonstrating or proving the difference in fidelity.

Similar claims have been made about the sound of analog synthesizers compared with the sound of digital synthesizers.

See also:

• audiophile