Piglet,
Nice to talk this subject with some knowledge.
Lets talk about best quality analogue. Do you remember Allen & Heat's audiophile V6 DJ mixer? Well it has superb good specs and sound, but done at the price of virtually no features, just 2 pots per channel, nothing else. The reason is that each switch, pot, filter, connector, cable, e-v-e-r-y-l-i-t-t-l-e-thingy inside, accumulatively smears the sound and adds distortion. Analogue hifi is achieved either the minimal way with just a few components made of gold ooor with an art of ear-selection of those required components that sound sweet and nice, and that also permits the gear to perform the task required.
Digital, on the contrary, can be transported and mixed as many times as you like without degradation. The processes (DSP) like EQ, effects, etc can be done with good quality...or not. As you mention there is a big difference between badly implemented digital and good one.
Fortunately each year, dig gets better and better.
Initially digital was very arrogant and took decades for the techs to acknowledge the problems and to finally address them. Now we know that the final stage, the DACs (when dig is transformed to analogue), has been the main culprit. Every studio or quality sound system uses dedicated DACs costing thousands of dollars, but at 2009 middle ones are not expensive and very good sounding.
That was about distortion.
In terms of signal to noise ratio, which means the amount of noise each piece of gear adds. Just see the phono S/N specs everywhere, those go from 72 to 85 dB max, whereas in good digital equipment, it stays above 100 dB. This dB number is the audio level from which the noise starts to be audible. In simple words; If a party runs around 120 dB, analoge gear will have 40 to 50 dB of noise coming together with the music whilst digital only 20 dB...
Distortion and noise are not the whole picture. Many musicians, Djs dont want accuracy in their equipment, they want euphony (call it musicality) and so add this and that in the amplification to obtain it or to filter out problems done at the recording, mastering or cause of bad quality files... I'd rather get musical sound at the actual music making level and get transparency on the DJ rig and sound system if possible.
Off-topic yes, but too scarcely known
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