The BLISS of returning to ANALOG: my experience

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?

Plato,

As you said, this forum is for people to exchange experiences and ideas, and all experiences are valid.

Fact: we stopped listening - literally - for ten years. Even buying a widely respected and pretty darn good CDP didn't solve the problem. Buying a TT did, emphatically.

That experience warrants this conclusion (for us), LP's are musical and CD's are not. Note I don't claim that LP's are perfect or convenient or insusceptible of improvement. I look forward to the format that will let me utter the words, "perfect sound forever" without holding my nose or stopping my ears. But that format has yet to arrive.

Perhaps your experience differs, but this is Elizabeth's thread, begun out of her joy at a discovery similar to ours. I'd like to help her celebrate. :)

Yes, LP's offer infinite sampling . . .

Elizabeth -

I am recently in the same boat
thank God I saved all my old vinyl in my closet

I just bought a Nottingham spacedeck and couldn't be happier

the digital is so much more true to the source

now to save up for a VPI cleaner
any good ways to tame ticks and pops pre machine?

I bought a London Decca dry brush to clean with

I have already amassed about 200 albums for little over $400 including a few pricey 200 g (new Steely Dan and Peter Gabriel) recordings and some Japanese pressing on ebay

my record store owner hates that I now spend $25 via vinyl instead of $100 on cds a week and walk away with more music to listen to

flea markets hear me coming

oh the joys of analog

Elizabeth: So what CD player did you have ? Was it a Nak, Revox or Kyocera ? From what i can remember, those were the first CD players to come close to or break the $1K bracket. Based on those memories, these machines were all WAY better sounding than the others available at the time.

Other than that, i think that each format has strong and weak points. I'd like to combine the best of each into one format that is both convenient, reliable and easy to store and maintain. Since i don't know of anything like that, i guess that i'll stick with a system(s) that is capable of working with either format and trying to achieve the best that both can deliver in a "somewhat affordable" manner. Sean
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