The BLISS of returning to ANALOG: my experience

Lugnut, the beauty of this forum is that all of us are entitled to express our own views based on our own unique experiences. No one has called you a liar and you're certainly not in trouble. I totally believe everything you have contributed thus far. It's just that my own experience and search for the best gear (that I can afford) has given me different results from that of you and your friend and probably many others. It is through these kinds of differences that we learn and progress and I don't think that's such a bad thing. Heck, I used to be very anti-digital but with my present gear, I'm really enjoying it. With R2R tape, I now have 3 formats that are bringing me a lot of musical pleasure and if I can achieve that, then so can you and a lot of other folks. Why close your mind to another potential avenue of musical bliss? Just because you haven't found the "magical" combination for digital yet doesn't mean it doesn't exist. And it doesn't have to be that expensive.

How many times have you gone to an audio demonstration where there are both digital and analog sources, both decent quality, and yet one blows the other away. I've seen it happen plenty of times. Sometimes, sadly, it is the analog that suffers in the comparison -- even when the equipment is good. Personally, I just chalk it up to someone not taking pains to optimize the performance of one of the formats and discount the results as meaningless. To draw concrete conclusions from experiments that are not conducted fairly, with strict controls over the variables is folly. Peace!

Plato, remember you are making a post on the analog forum. Most of us who post here regularly only listen to cd's in our cars now.

Glad you enjoy the TT...I understand how someone with little or no experience with vinyl could make a post such as you have, I remember when you found the Maggies, I enjoyed that post also. I hope you don't get so lost in your new found love as to write off digital playback and cheat yourself out of some good music. Enjoy the ride, you have a lot of LP's to check out!!!

Dave

Plato,

We did what we did with what we had. Like I said in my first post, there isn't a lot of high end stuff to listen to in our area. I didn't come across as relating my system as anything special. To the contrary, I termed it modest by Audiogon standards. Excuse me if I'm a little bit offended by regular criticism of the LP12 here. Yeah, there are better turntables to be had but like I've stated many times here in these forums I have no compelling reason to upgrade. I have heard several of the turntables that are regularly touted here as being superior to the Linn and IMHO the life is sucked right out of the music. Each his own.

I've never been on any jihad against digital playback and only recently parted with my last player. I considered it to be excellent. But after almost 10 years and two players I had about 40 CD's as compared to approximately 5,000 lp's. Having the CDP was a waste of precious resources.

The reality of digital playback is that a system has to be maximized for it. Insert analog into such a system and you have compromised the analog investment. And, here I run the risk of even more criticism, I think that with the myriad things one must insert into a system to make the most of CD's, amounts to signal processing. I've found the fewest things in the signal path the better the musicality.

If you re-read my first post I stated "to make a very long story short". The digital system I inserted my turntable into was tweaked to the max as far as I could tell. Multiple very expensive interconnects, power conditioners and isolation devices were used and it's generally agreed that the Audio Aero Capitole is one of the better players on the planet. If any piece wasn't given a fair shake in this experiment it was my LP12 run through the phono section of an early 80's very midfi receiver. The turntable was even placed in a location where it was subjected to low frequency feedback.

I wasn't challenging your experience and stated up front that this was in contrast to yours. Then I get a lame challenge to drive a gazillion miles to do a meaningless shootout.

I stand behind my last statement which probably set you off. A good, well maintained turntable will last a lifetime. The last twenty years has proven that not to be the case with CDP's.

Plato and Lugnut YOU ARE BOTH WRONG!!!!!!! Just kidding! You both make great points. I have been very very blessed to have landed some decent components over the years and I think you both have valid points (and believe me, I am NOT a politically correct person - I HATE that stuff - just be honest!). I have a decent digital front end and, at times, I feel like I could do without analog (more on this in a minute) - but then I come to my senses. But I go through phases where I listen to mainly digital for a week or two and then analog. When I then switch to analog and the recording is a good one, I think to my self "why do I need digital?" (No, I am not schizo, but I am weird!).

The reason I appear to be politically correct is that I have heard both formats sound incredible. Unlike Lugnut, I have an equal number of CDs and LPs because many of the albums I like are not available on LP. Therefore, I must have a CD front end to hear that stuff. While I do agree that well maintained turntables last a long time, digital probably could have some longevity of mechanical function, but the format has changed and improved so much over the last twenty years, many of us do not even have the same digital front end we had 3 years ago. I also think digital has closed the gap a lot in the last few years.

The bottom line? I like music and I enjoy both. I love the nostalgia and ritual of analog as well as the sound. I enjoy the convenience and availability of new software of digital as well as the sound. Done right, they can both sound great (with the edge to analog on the better recordings) and done wrong they can both sound like crap!

Just my $.02

PS - how come it costs $.02 to put MY thoughts in but only costs a penny for yours?