In the last couple of years the popularity of the analog audio started to increase once again and this can clearly be seen by the number of vinyl record sales. There are many classical albums which are being reproduced and then sold as new, and they prove to be very successful. Most of the people agree that the digital audio media has more benefits than the analog audio media, but the same people agree that the analog audio has a more rich and natural tone. In what follows I am going to present you some information about each of these two types of sounds, as my article is focused on analog vs. digital audio.

The analog sound is a concussion pulsation of physical matter. The human ear is able to perceive this sound only when its frequency is between 1 hertz and 20k hertz which is 20,000 hertz. Thomas Edison, the famous American inventor was the first one to invent a device which is able to record the sound. What is fascinating about this is the fact that he was nearly deaf when he invented the first phonograph, the device which set the start for the recorded analog sound.

The phonograph worked this way: the lead cylinder rotated while the speaker talked in the cone, which could also be doubled as a speaker. Of course in time the technology evolved, things got better and better, the sound was clearer, and the recordings could be made for longer and longer periods of time.

The main characteristics of the analog machines is the fact that they record sound as wave forms, which is the natural form, just like the sound is present in the nature. On the other hand the digital machines take the samples of the signal and store them as pieces of data. The digital machines are able to provide higher signal-to-noise ratio, the noise being represented by the background sounds. This is the reason why you can hear background sound when listening to an audio cassette and you can’t hear it while listening to a CD.

The quality of the analog sound will deteriorate when it is copied and this is why in most of the cases the original cassette will sound better than the recorded one. This does not happen in the case of the digital data because it is just like you would copy bits of data from one computer to another. The recordings of the digital sounds are easier to perform as well because you can cut pieces out or select certain parts of the music, and so on. Some say that the analog sound is better because it doesn't simulate an "S" wave, but it captures it. This was my info on analog vs. digital audio.