@inthehands maybe that is exactly why it sounds better, because the way our brains percieve the sound is “smoothed out” by the audible noise in a way that is missing with the digital? i don’t know, obviously something is going on here on the perception level of our senses that isn’t easily explainable from a reductive viewpoint regarding fidelity.
many people describe the difference is “something missing” in the digital version, sounds a lot of wha it’s missing is the noise to me