All day I have been comparing Analog to HD Drawdown; now that's where you have more of a level playing field.
The first record up was Santana "Abraxas" on HD Drawdown. It was fantastic in every way; 3D and all.
Next came my 5K analog rig. That included at least 1K of tweaks; plus as a result of my experience and knowledge, it hits above the 5K expenditure. Before I began this contest, I thought it would be a draw, but the analog had "slightly" more air and black background.
Where the analog clearly exceeded the digital was in "gestalt". Sometime ago, when an audiophile fanatic would call me over to listen with him, he would use this word "Gestalt" a lot, that was before I even knew what it meant.
"Gestalt"
an organized whole that is perceived as more than the sum of its parts. This is a very important word to an audiophile; it's one that you learn the definition of by "Osmosis"; that's when you listen to music with such intensity that you hear into the depths of the musician; that's the difference between sound and music.
While the HD Drawdown sounded as good as I thought it could get, the rig put me in a trance. Here again, we are talking about a subjective emotional response. The bottom line is; the analog was only better after you reached another level of listening and hearing into the music.
If a person didn't already own a ton of vinyl, I wouldn't recommend analog over digital, when you can get so much without plunking down 5K. No, I don't have time to listen to anyone who is going to tell me you can get it cheaper than that, and that's 5K plus experience and knowledge, which is every bit as important as the 5K, because just plunking down 5K will not get you what analog has to offer; that's why some guy will say I plunked down 10K and still didn't get what was promised.