Is Digital actually better than Analog?

a friend of mine who actually pretty much sold me all of my equipment as a sort of hand me downs when he upgraded convinced me when i mentioned that i wanted to get a sacd player telling me that the cds were going to cost a pretty penney when you can go out and hunt down some vinyl and pay pennies on the dollar for it. he sold me his old optonica direct drive which i grew to love. well after about a year i ran across a nice pioneer belt drive in great shape. still this rig here on audiogon would be concidered a junker but the belt drive really kept the noise down. well its been two years now and now i have a revox linear drive and moving coil and all. probably 1000 or so records and honestly i still enjoy a cd from time to time but you just can't beat the affordability of records now their fun to listen to and their fun to find at garage sales flea markets or the best is when a friend of a friend knows that your into vinyl and give you their old record collection that thy could not throw out. its a great hobby. now as far as the digital goes i recently upgraded my turntable and my cd player and actually can hear the differences in both. went from an older 1990ish yamaha to probably same era sony that was a higher end unit at the time and noticed big diffences in smoothness and low end bass. very interesting to play around with but i much prefer tweaking my analog rig.

>>So I guess that means....analog wins. Wahoo!<<

Ding!
Round Two
Pass the popcorn

John is correct. I have sold my Esoteric Dv-50s. I said goodbye to it after watching the Lord of the Rings Special Edition triology. A 12 hour event. The Esoteric is by far the best player via movie soundtracks, but music wise, it was just was too detailed and a bit harsh. Shopping around, I am happy to say I did hear my first very pleasing Vinyl sound demo. It was in Audio Synergey (I'll give them a plug) in Philipsburg, NJ. I listend to a Krell 400XI, Krell Resolution 3 Montiors and he had a Krell 300 CD player and some $200- Czech Record Player. I was quite taken back to how good it sounded, especially for $200-. Sounded great with the Krell gear. I am thinking of going back and getting it and hitting some record stores. I know there is one down in Princeton, NJ that sells records for like a $1-. Once again, thanks to everyone that has responded to the forum. They all seem somewhat enthusiastic.

"They all seem somewhat enthusiastic"

Some more so than others :-)

Do yourself a favor and do not skimp on the phono stage. That can make or break a analogue front-end.

Regards
Paul

Musicaudio,

I agree with Paul about the phonostage. Spend as much as you can on the phonostage. It's a worthwhile investment for now and the future. You don't want your foray into analog cut short because of a lousy phonostage.

From your post it sounds like your looking at getting a Music Hall turntable. I have never heard one personally but I have heard good things from them. Just keep in mind that you cannot upgrade the tonearm on them(at least not to my knowledge). If you really get into analog(as I suspect you might) you will find that the tonearm and the cartridge make a enormous difference in the sound you get from your turntable. Just something to think about.

Congratulations! You have just taken your first step into a larger world. Let us know how it goes.

Justin