Turntable or go into SACD, Simon Yorke vs EMM Lab

Thanks to everyone for the input. I am still kind of lost. I heard the EMM Labs and was amazed at the sound. Tremendous detail & resolution. I also think the Simon Yorke can offer the same. I find a lot of records I am looking for & I find a lot of SACDs I am looking for. Personally, SACD is easier to find new, while records tend to be more difficult. There is something romantic to records. Just to give you all the remainder of my system. I am posting it shortly.

I truely find it interesting you have posted this thread in analog rather than digital. If I read between the lines on this one it will tell us which way you are leaning.You allready have a very nice analog system. I don`t think it`s our place to tell you which to purchase but I will offer my opinion which format is better that`s analog. It truely amazes me what can pull out of 100 year technology coupled with some of the new hardware that out you can`t go wrong.
You are very right digital is easy but is that what you are after? Or is it the best sound reproduction? I have alway`s lusted over the Simon Yorke so you know which way I would go.
In your last post you stated the EMM Labs could offer the detail and resolusion as the Simon Yorke. I feel the Simon Yorke would surpass that with your Urushi and the right phono stage. David

I have a friend who's heard both the EMM Labs and two TT's in another guy's system. The TT's were his fully modded LP12 and the system owner's Teres 265. To his ears they both beat the Meitner pretty easily. I suppose a SY table would do the same, and your Hyperspace too for that matter.

I have no idea what that's worth to you. I'm not even sure how we can help you make this decision. As Cylinderking 1 said, it really depends on:
- what you're after in music reproduction,
- how much time and effort you're willing or able to spend to get it and,
- which format has more music that you like.

World class analog still beats world class digital, but that doesn't necessarily make it right for you. It's right for me, but you knew that when you asked on this forum!

For now, if I were you I would stand pat -- just buy more records and CDs. I am one of those who went from an SACD player (Sony SCD-1) back to a good CD player (Naim CDS3). The top CD players sound quite good and I have not found an SACD player that did a really good job with CDs. I am also quite disappointed with the limited availability of music worth buying in SACD. On top of all of this, it is not at all clear which, if any of the two currently competing "high definition" formats will gain widespread acceptance.

I am not sure you would get a big boost from going from your current table to the Yorke. It will be a gamble since there is no practical way to audition tables fairly, short of taking the table home and mounting your arm on it.

What improvements are you looking for in your digital or analogue sources? I note that you consider CDs on the Audio Aero Capitole II merely OK. I like your CD player (great clarity and utterly free of grain), but I would expect it to sound quite different from your vinyl setup (not as rich and warm and less pronounced in midbass region). You could try cheap tweaking of the player. I know someone who bypassed the cone feet of the player to get more weight into the midbass.

Good luck, it sounds line you already have a very nice system.

I suggest you upgrade your Audio Aero for a Meitner DCC2...

My synopsis of you situation is as follows:

1. vinyl - quite happy
2. CD - only OK
3. SACD - impressed with what you heard on Meitner.
4. Software - mainly vinyl.

Before going to the Meitner, I auditioned Audio Aero, Wadia 861SE, Electocompaniet and many other,but none of them came close to the magic that Meitner achieves on regular CD !!!

Following many audio society sessions, the Meitner remains well ahead of the pack on both CD & SACD...and always amazes members on CD...

I bought the Meitner solely on how much it elevated plain old red book CD...for me SACD was the bonus !!

Beleive me pure DCS recordings ie. microphone straight to the DSD recorder rival the finest golden era living voice etc. recordings from the Early 60's.

Most users dont realize that the Meitner converts Red book CD to DSD and in the process removes many of the negative artifacts introduced by the anti-aliasing filters(aka Brick wall filters) used to make CD's.

Instead of buying old & expensive old vinyl, I now achieve tremendous satisfaction from more recent CD re-issues of the early 60's living voice recordings and EMI classis re-mastered using EMI's art process.

Another huge bonus of the DCC2 is that it allows you to eliminate a pre-amp & un-necessary interconnects...remember less is more in the analog domain.

Personally I cashed out a BAT D5se, BAT 51SE and valhalla interconnects and put SACD in my system and money in my pocket!!

If you are nervous of spending 7k on the Proprietatry Meitner SACD transport, I suggest you buy an in-expensive SACD player and feed it to the DCC2 as an auxiliary input.

Consensus in our audio society is that a relatively small investment in the inherently higher resolution SACD format will easily surpass megabuck red book players.

Finally, as regards software, I suggest you buy Hybrid SACD's only.

I hope this helps.