I can only agree with all you say...
I've done the same comparisons and even my girlfriend notices the difference without having told her what to listen for - her exact words as she commented the analog version was - This sounds more alive and open
I used to do it ALL ITB & digidesign converters - after getting apogee my stereo image improved dramatically as did the depth of the mix.... Wise heads say: well, you probably mixed it differently and had the volumes and pannings set in another way... All I can say to this : yada yadd...
I remember a day sitting in the studio mixing ITB when I got a visit from a tcelectronic guy. He noticed our large DDA analog console and asked me why I would mix ITB when I had such a fine board. I replied: ITB sounds the same and the plugs are just as good as the EQ's on the board etc... I remember how the end of his lips started to face north and he smiled and said - have you actually ever made a comparison? I replied: Yes I have (but I had not)... Then we entered a little discussion about analog summing and he tried to explain to me that analog summing and great converters makes a huge differences. I thought he was talking trash but as he left he had somehow sparked me with the flame of proving him wrong... So I did the comparisons - and I did a lot of them... The only one proved wrong was - well ME - and I felt like an idiot not having done this before. I had relied on WHITE PAPERS and company specs. saying that ITB is summing the same as an analog mixer...That was 6 years ago... I would have preferred ME to be right about ITB - it would have made my life easier but there is a HUGE sonic difference.
I started off being ALL ITB and plugs all over the place - now I'm In and OTB and use Hardware outboards. I used to believe that compressor bank from McDSP would emulate ALL the hardware compressors out there cuz it said so in the specs and I would always use the VARI-MU emulation within compressor Bank cuz I was dying to get a real VARI-MU... Now I have One and boy - you cant even compare the two... They are both compressors but the McDSP has NOTHING in common with the real deal...
I dont know what is sounding the closet to the truth : Analog or digital but I do know what I like the best...And that is all that matters to me. I hope that I can at least help a few people with a skull as thick as mine to do the actual comparison a little earlier than I did and save them selves some valuable time instead of believing a white paper over their ears and taste...
I know that various Mixing and Mastering guru's state that the white papers are telling the truth and Eric Clapton states that he uses a Martin Guitar for his recordings - does endorsement ring a bell? I know of engineers saying that he uses Santa Cruz and Collings guitars _ but hey this may just be a stupid rumor
Seeing is believing and hearing is believing but only the latter applies to a recording environment..... and you cannot "hear" a commercial white paper
))