How can we settle for digital?

My Playback Designs MPS-5 really does amazing things with my turdiest CDs. I've got $10,000 into digital and about $3000 in my analog TT and now, finally, consider them equally satisfying. Getting digital right ain't cheap, but it's being done. In another year or two we'll probably be able to buy DACs equivalent to Playback Designs, Emm, dCS and others of that ilk for $3000.

Strangely, digital software now costs less than the same analog. Whenever given the choice, I'm buying SACDs first, CDs next and LPs last, based on cost-performance ratio in my system.

Dave

My Theta Gen VIII / Sony 707ES clobbers my Dual 616Q / Adcom crosscoil every time.

there was a cd player, vintage 1994, that i auditioned in an all naim system. the naim cd player was the cd x.

i remember being startled at the sound coming out of a pair of naim speakers. what i heard seemed to surpass most vinyl set ups.

the problem with comparing vinyl to digital is that one cannot generalize. some cartridges and recordings are so bad that i would not want to listen to such a set up.

i personally prefer an old koetsu black cartridge to almost anything out there.

the point is that there may be a cd player which is more satisfying than some turn table /arm/ cartridge combinations.

The Linn DS changed the way I think about digital.

Are you asking us if it's foolish to spend $3K on a CDP? Just keep in mind that a price point is where the manufacturer stops adding any more value to something. If you take two identical boxes and fit them each with the same laser/transport, filter and DAC you can get two different sounding CDP's. Just use better transformers, filter caps, wiring/PCB's, output transistors and hardware. That one would cost more and (should) sound better. Will it sound good enough to justify the difference? That's where you come in to the equation.

I think what your friend is trying to convey is that the actual retrieval process hasn't changed over the years and the differences in parts and engineering are the polish. I happen to disagree - for what makes one CDP sound better than another is the same reason why one amp sounds better than another: power supply, voltage/current regulation and linear output devices. They cost big money as you move up the food chain and account for a large percentage of the overall cost. Add to that dampening, shielding and circuitry layout that minimizes signal path distortion and you get the idea.