Is a vinyl rig only worth it for oldies?

Raul,
I am absolutely astonished by your post on bass above and its importance to reproduction. Do you only listen to bass ?
Given that your room is not large, the analogue gear sits between your speakers, the miss-match of multiple drivers and amplifiers, I cannot see how your system can possibly deliver coherent musical timing. If it does it must be a complete fluke.

Although I prefer analogue by a long way, I agree with Mapman, it is going to come down to the quality of the implementation.
To me the biggest issue for analogue is the inability for most people to set a turntable up correctly. I can listen to simple music on digital, but anything with multiple instrumentation, eg orchestral, for me, digital cannot cope, and my digital reference system is way ahead of anything commercially produced.
With regards to bass performance, amplification/speakers/room will have a bigger part to play than which medium you use.
As my best mate says - "Nothing wrong with digital, it's only a little bit out all of the time" .

Dear Dover: No, I don't listen only bass. Fortunately my system bass is IMHO first rate and realy permit to enjoy the whole music frequency range in a way that maybe you can't even dream.

Yes, it is a complete " fluke ", a stunning fluke/surprise. I respect your opinion but IMHO you can't have an opinion till you can hear it. A " nice and different " experience I can say.

Anyway, other than distortions level what makes a system difference are not only our each one priorities but our each knowledge level and skills to achieve with success our each one targets.

Because your posts here and elsewhere I'm sure that your ignorance level is different from mine, your place in the audio learning curve is not the same that mine.

regards and enjoy the music,
R.

I still favour the sound of vinyl, whether old or new to cd, or SACD for that fact.

If vinyl replay has more distortions, then they are of the pleasing variety, much like poor measuring SET amplifiers which sound better than the specs would lead you to believe.

Which brings me to my point this time.

Good vinyl systems do sound very good, and good digital systems can also sound very good.

I upgraded both my sources, from a Rega P9 to a SME 10. SMEv arm, from the Rega Exact 2 MM to a Clearaudio Talisman V2 Gold.

I switched from an Audio Aero Capitole cd player to an Esoteric Ex-03.

Both moves were indeed upgrades.

The Esoteric is the best digital player that I've owned, but my friend has the full Scarlatti set up and he also has the SME30, with the Goldfinger MC.

Also,I have listened to his very high end computer based system, and heard detail I never heard with cd or sacd.

At the end of the nite, he switched over to his vinyl setup, threw on a $5.00 used Ray Charles LP, and the system took on a whole other dimension.

The vinyl sound was just more organic,less electrical or manipulated.
Perhaps it's all those nasty distortions that somehow manage to make music sound more realistic.
Especially music that was recorded without any type of digital interplay.

It was a more relaxed atmosphere,the music wasn't forced out of the speakers(Sonus Faber Strad)like it did with any of the digital set ups.It just flowed out, almost oozing all the fullness and naturalness of a live event, which in itself is wrought with distortions.

I am betting it is the inclusion of the distortions,captured in a true all analog system that is missing in the squeeky clean digital recordings and gear.

The stuff that digital algorithms fail to acknowledge and skip over.

But just like the god particles, are what holds the music together.

Dear Lacee: +++++ " If vinyl replay has more distortions, then they are of the pleasing variety... " ++++

I have no doubt about and agree with you because that's what happen.

IMHO the main problem is that many of us are totally accustomed to those wrong but " pleasing " distortions in the same way many of you are biased and accustomed to tube electronics.

Nothing wrong with that but my point and main subject is that on playback the digital alternative is truer to the recording with a lot less distortions ( every kind. ). That we like it or not is a different matter.

This was posted for other person in other thread:

+++ " that we do have a long term acoustic memory of a sort - as well as a bias - sometimes so much so that it makes an unbiased hearing of something different very difficult, " ++++

In the same way that exist people that only listen to digital as there are people that only hear LPs and obviously like you an me whom hear both alternatives.
If you make an invitation to a " digital person " to listen LPs he still will prefer digital in the same way the other side around but if we take out our bias and only compare what we listen through both alternatives ( both with a set up that fulfill each one alternative needs. ) with what are our live event experiences ( better if those experiences were near field. ) we will know for sure which is really more near that live event experiences/performances and that IMHO is digital.

Lacee, I'm not against LPs experience/alternative it's only that I like to analize what happen down there through playback and all those added distortions during playback does not makes it a better alternative than digital.
I posted twice that both alternatives have its own trade-offs, there is nothing perfect.

Regards and enjoy the music,
R.