Vinyl vs. top-notch digital

Jeff,

I'm an analog guy who's slowly migrated towards more digital time in my
listening room. However, the process has been largely driven by ergonomics
- many posts above note the time required to do justice to analog - and I
have been spending less time in my dedicated room over the years.

To answer the 2 questions you asked

IMHO (and just MHO)

1) $5K ish will put you in a VPI or Acoustic Solid or Galibier w/modified Rega
RB set-up with about $1K available for a cart. Phono stages of concomitant
quality will add from $1K to $3K (and up). This does not represent SOTA
phono performance, but - in my experience (Acoustic Solid Wood/RB300/Lyra
Dorian. I also own a more elaborate and expensive set-up that still hews to
the comments to follow) - it will outperform any digital I've heard. CAVEAT:
Only when the LP in question is a fine recording. Which brings us to...

2) I own many, many crappy LPs which are inferior to most cds. Most (though
certainly not all) rock LPs from the '70s leave much to be desired. OTOH, the
vast majority of my jazz LPs easily outperform their digital counterparts.
IMHO, you should not expect across the board improvement if/when you add
an analog source to your system. However, I suspect that your best quality
listening will be analog.

Good Luck,

Marty

As someone who is just starting out in vinyl but already having a sota digital system in a dedicated listening room, i would encourage you to get into analog but to think of it as complimentary.

some swear by one or the other. In my opinion, the quality of the recording, type of music,listening room, cleaning and your subjective taste will determine your preference album to album. this makes it fun so get both!

My first tt is not sota and dont own yet audiophile lps and can tell vinyl is natural, organic

..regarding "vinyl noise". If your table is set up properly and your equipment is good, you will get very little nose. People who hear my system tell me that they are amazed that the old vinyl that seemed to have the sssss sound - just doesn't. I dare say, that I have many records (older ones from the 60's, 70's as well ) that have about the same noise level as CD. When the occasional "pop" comes along, it is reproduced on to a different plane than the music, and everyone - not only I, can easily disregard it.

Bravo Violin....

Hi Jeff,

If you happen to live in LA or get out this way come over to my house and hear the difference. I own the Lector Digicode/Digidrive. Harry Pearson(and other major reviewers-do a google search) considers the Lector to be one of the most analogue sounding digital rigs out there. I happen to agree with him. Having said that it still doesn't come close to my analogue setup.

If you can't come out my way find a dealer near you that sells turntables. Bring your CD player over and compare. That's what I did. I walked out of there with a turntable.

As far as the time investment it's really not that bad. Unless you buy a really tweaky turntable like the Walker(or any table that has a linear tracking arm for that matter) you shouldn't have to adjust your turntable once it has been setup properly. Yeah you have to clean the records(but I don't do it all the time only when they need it), and yes you have to get up and switch sides but other than that it's really not that bad. Plus not being able to skip tracks is a bonus in a way. You start listening to albums instead of songs.

As far as noise goes 95% of my records(new or used) are as quite as CD.

Speaking of setup it is the key to good vinyl playback. Only a properly setup turntable will sound better than CD. If you do decide to go vinyl do yourself a favor and find a dealer in your area who really know how to setup a turntable correctly.

As to the statement that new music is not being put out on vinyl that is incorrect. Please go to the following link for some interesting info on this.

http://www.wired.com/entertainment/music/commentary/listeningpost/2007/10/listeningpost_1029
http://blog.wired.com/music/2008/04/riaa-admits-vin.html

One last thing only you can decide what sound you prefer. To me analogue sounds more like the real thing, but there are plenty of guys on Audiogon that prefer digital. So, again, go check it out for yourself and see which you prefer.

Justin