How could analog be less "efficient" than digital, when in fact it is truer to the original sound waveform which is sinusoidal, or at least composed of sinusoidal components?  Digital makes an approximation of those waveforms with square waves, so I would think that digital is less efficient than analog, because it can never, no matter how close it comes capture the entire aural waveform.

It is true that analog distortion can be pleasing to the ear, which is one of the nice things about analog preamps like the Joe Meek, where if you overdrive a little, the "bite" is warm and pleasing...The digital distortion is..as you probably know..horrible.

Gene