I am a "Moron"

I spent years of reading, listening to frequency responses on test records, discovering which was the best cartridge for me before I settled down to music; now I can listen to music on the best set up of my life.

If I wanted to diddle around and play with something, I would have gone into model trains.

Sounds like you just kind of got sick of it. It happens, some day I may as well.  

@orpheus10 you say "I have never met a computer expert who owned a single record, or a record player." I guess you don't know many computer experts. I work in a computer group predominantly full of MIT and CMU post-grads. I am frequently overjoyed to see young 20-something computer engineers buying record players because of they find the music is more enjoyable. I hate to break it to you but Silicon Valley, home of big six figure salaries, is a hotbed of vinyl revival. Perhaps you would like to re-qualify your sweeping generalization?

wqq, you got the age and educational level right, but I just flat out do not believe you in regard to all those computer experts being into records.

I rely heavily on people I consult who have degrees in computer science, and none of them or their friends own one single solitary record; records are stupid, unless you already owned a ton of the things before CD. That's the only reason I got into high end analog, and I don't regret it because a whole new world has opened up; however, I think I read where Michael Fremer said this was possible with a Dual Turntable, and there is no way under the Sun this could be accomplished with the "mid fi" crap we were using that was considered to be good. If it had, we would not have gone to CD's.

Other geezer friends of mine, sold their records and never looked back. The high end analog equipment required for records to exceed CD is very expensive, plus the fact that some CD's are better than some records.

Initially, the CD versus records thing was valid, but the quality of new digital hardware has altered this; especially from an economic point of view.

Considering the exorbitant cost of cartridges, turntables, tone arms, and phono amps; I should hope that records sound better; not to mention the exorbitant cost of the records themselves.

My posts have been directed at any one who wishes to enjoy the benefits of everything they paid for, without handling those precious very expensive records but one time; twice if you include washing them; but apparently there are those who would rather play with records than listen to music.

Without a doubt, you will need a computer expert to accomplish this feat of down loading perfectly to your external hard drive ( the computer speaks French, and "Ana log" is English; therefore, you will need a very good "interface" or interpreter to talk to your PC, which also means the services of someone who knows how to accomplish this feat; that goes for in and out to a high quality DAC)

I became accustomed to reel before PC, which required a lot of blank tape that is no longer available, but the PC does not require blank tape, which makes it much better than a reel to reel.

Many "audiophiles" on this very same forum have verified and validated what I have stated in regard to getting out of the PC precisely what you put in.

I think it is fantastic that the OP has found a way to make his music listening easier, more practical and more enjoyable; hard to argue with that and I commend his effort to share the experience with others. I don’t think he should consider himself a moron for that reason.

I would like to also agree with wqgq_641 re the record buying habits of computer techs; my 28 yr old being one of them. A secondary career for him is managing an up and coming young pop artist and they just released this artist’s second recording on vinyl (!!!) due to demand for the format. There is no question that there is a vinyl revival going on. Additionally, based on general rules of thumb arrived at over many years in this hobby and direct experience with my son’s and others’ experiments with the digitizing of analog recordings for storage and playback, I don’t believe that the sonic results are identical to the direct playback of lp’s. Excellent and very close? Yes, they can be. Identical? Anytime that additional processing of the music takes place there will inevitable losses in fidelity. Whether those losses are acceptable, or audible, to any one listener is a personal call.