Considering going Vinyl--Please talk me out of it

Indeed they are. I had an AES djh signature pre, which matched up nicely with the thiels. Of course, I couldn't stand prosperity, and traded it back to upscale audio for a Cary cinema 6, which I sold after I finally bit on an EAD Ovation +, which is proof that there is nothing o.o..o...obsessive about me!

I should also pitch in here.

Man you should really run away form this. I have a 10K tube CD player and have not used it in 6 months, I got an upgrade to my TT setup and spent almost 15 K there have 9k LP's Hybrid Mono blocks and tube preamp and phono stage. all the clicks and pops every cleanign session and effort is well worth it but STAY AWAY there is no end to this insanity.

I think that Michaeljbrown understand his peril. I re-entered analog the same way. Cramming CDs into a box and waiting for the sound to come out was not doing it for me. I picked up a few of the classics that I had enjoyed growing up at a local used bookstore, which justified my wife ordering me a new SL-1200 (a facsimile of what my late '70's-early'80's chums would have considered a nice deck) for $400 delivered a few Christmasses back. From there, I was bequeathed four or five peoples' collections spanning classical, jazz, and classic rock/pop. Next Christmas was the VPI 16.5 cleaning machine. Next came filling in my "must-haves" from eBay-- I've been about 85% satisfied with the results. Finally, the terminal stage has set in-- I acquired some of the classic decks of my youth and built whole systems around them. My wife can't complain because she started the whole cycle (this is important!), although I do hide a few decks... I haunt the four local thrift shops and two used record stores whose cashiers know me, and occasionally plop $30 or $40 down on a new audiophile release with two local dealers. I actually get off on a session of Orbitrac followed by VPI cleaning and play-testing, and have begun buying multiple copies of the same LP just so I can evaluate which one is the keeper-- or which one must endure the 2.7g conical force of my DL-103. I have a few excellent CD players, but have not listened to a CD in half a year and do not have one currently hooked up. My grade-school-age daughters are now understanding the anticipation of the "needle drop." I fear that I am about to splatter myself on the rocks of modern high-end. I also enjoy the hell out of music again.

Nope, Can't do that!

In my experience, Zero to minimum signal is lost in Vinyl reproduction, so music sounds natural as it is intended to be (assuming recordings are great to begin with). Even a modesy well put together and set up TT rig would be more satisfying. Although I do have two really great CD playback systems (one of them sounds uncannily as good as (well a tad less)Vinyl)I switch to for music that is not available on Vinyl. Most of the time though it is Vinyl. This from a Vinyl novice(2 years) and I have amassed more music on Vinyl then on Last 20 years worth of CDs!

In my subjective opinion, all the talk about if and how one can make CD sound better than vinyl is a bit of a blind alley. If I may invoke a crude metaphor: CD is like an electric space heater whereas vinyl is like a fireplace. They both do pretty much the same thing (provide warmth), but I seriously doubt anyone here would wish to veg out on the threshold of a daydream (ideally with the rig playing some wonderfully complex meditation on existence by Shostakovich or King Crimson) staring into the space heater. But you still have to carry wood, get the fire going, keep an eye on it every so often, and face the chore of cleaning out the ashes. Space heater: More boring than a North Korean newscast, but plug in, push button, get heat. Don't want heat? Push other button. No-brainer, no chipped nails.

CD is simple and "low maintenance". There's the thumb factor: you can be a major klutz and still make CD work for you. And to me, most CDs sound pretty good. I have some favorite music on CD that I couldn't get on vinyl. Digital hostage? Maybe. But with upsampling penetrating the high end's mainstream (don't think about THAT one too hard) CD's shortcomings are pretty well dressed over.

LP requires actually touching the equipment, and it requires that one become a neatnik about the records themselves. Also, today's high-grade moving coil cartridges are just plain fragile. When my Dual tt's arm lift failed suddenly, it dropped a Sumiko Blue Point hard enough to turn it into a Blue Pointless. Now I'm running a pricier, even less crashworthy cartridge, (did I mention that I am developinga tremor?) and everytime I move the tonearm I have to take a moment and deliberately relax a hidden part of myself that got seriously clenched while the stylus was in jeopardy. But the reward is music that is easier to listen to and just different from CD. I have music on vinyl that I couldn't get on CD.

Logistics:
CD: one box, not counting interconnects.
LP: Turntable. Good $500, quite good $1500, great (more).
Tonearm: Good - usually included and most often a Rega. Very good: $1000. Great: $5000.
Cartridge: (this part wears out eventually. It holds the rock that you drag through the gutter to get to the music.) Good $150, very good $750, great - into five figures.
Phono stage. Good $300, very good $1000, great $5k - 40k. Yow.
Not counting two pair of interconnects.
cheers apo