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Back to analog ..was it a mistake???

Like alot in the 1980s I went totally digital.Took my 300+ album collection and boxed them up never thinking I would venture back.My current digital system is about everything I always wanted.Black background,nice sound stage,fast,clean,detailed yet very musical.The speakers disappear and instument seperation is there and in the correct locations.Vocals are superb on all types of music IMO..
From strong suggestions from my bro I decided to try the analog approach again even though the analog systems Ive heard recently never came close to my setup.I bought a mid 1980s Linn lp12 and did some upgrades to it..Mose/Hercules2,new Akito2 arm,belt,oil,Denon DL160,cables..had it setup correctly.Bought a new Musical Surroundings Phono.Spent days cleaning records.What I have in sound is nothing short of a big dissapointment for the time and money spent.Forgetting the snap,crackle, pop which is very hard to get around the sound stage is nowhere to be found.The speakers no longer disappear,its like taking 10 steps backwards..Yea, I know the Linn isnt the beat all table as well as the phono but something is amiss here.Ive tried a few adjustments and things seem to become a little better but when I do the digital it becomes clear my analog attempt sucks.Am I expecting too much from my new investment back to analog???Is all this analog talk just talk from guys who never had a great digital system??Any positive imput or suggestions is appreciated..Thanks in advance
missioncoonery
lloydc's avatar
lloydc
549 posts
 
Huge amounts of time, trouble and expense were required to get my analogue rig to equal, then exceed, the performance of the digital one. That's what it took to get me interested in listening at home again, after going digital in the 80's, but realizing years later that the life had been sucked out of the music. But for only 300 records, would it make sense for you to sink $10K into an analogue front end (that's about the point at which analogue begins to exceed digital, in my experience, but that would still be a modest system by the standards of many here on Audiogon) ?
schipo
1,267 posts
 
snap,crackle, pop which is very hard to get around

my opinion is if you are not raised on vinyl. It is very hard to brush aside the above.
czbbcl's avatar
czbbcl
1,699 posts
 
I want to try vinyl again as well and have been all over the map on what to buy ; vpi, clearaudio, rega . I have about 200 albums in the basement and access to a used vinyl shop . I think I am going to go cheap and keep my expectations low and just sit back and enjoy the music.

I never could stand the ticks and pops of analogue and the constant maintenance associated with it . My highly modded scd-1 is superb, dead quiet with a huge deep soundstage.

Thanks, Chuck
rhljazz
1,117 posts
 
I've always had a turntable in my system, just inexpensive ones until now. I don't own a record cleaning machine. I just use a brush to take the dust off. Many of my records are over 35 years old and have been neither pampered or abused. I have very few ticks and pops, and for the most part they don't interfere with my enjoyment of the music.

The soundstage and dimensionality on decent recordings exceed even my best digital ones. Sounds float free from the confines of the speakers. I now have incredible bass. I didn't think it was possible via LP to achieve that level of impact. I purchased a quality setup here on A-Gon for a price I was pleased with. The cartidge was purchased from my local dealer. I bought the Fremer dvd, the alignment tools, digital vtf scale, and learned as much as I could. It still takes some fiddling, trial and error adjustments to get the right sound. I use the Musical Surroundings Phonomena which works just fine for me.

I've heard Linn tables before and I never did hear a system fronted by one sound bad. I think you need to revisit your setup. I've read about some of the Linn specific tuning, like the springs, dressing of the leads, and all the updates that are available which makes the setup more complicated. Keep trying if you like those records.

mepearson
100 posts
 
First of all, if you are expecting LPs to be as dead quiet as digital, it is not going to happen. Digital is what I call "look ma, no hands" technology. Anyone can buy a CD player and plug it up and get whatever goodness you enjoy out of CDs. LP systems take far more work than CD based systems in order to extract their maximum potential. If you are not willing to put the time and energy into it, give up. If your records sound like a rice krispy symphony, than they were not taken care of properly either in past use or storage. CDs don't have more depth, width, or height soundstage-wise than LPs. Something is amiss in your setup. Whether you care to get to the bottom of it is something you need to decide.
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