Turntable or go into SACD, Simon Yorke vs EMM Lab

Hi Cello,

Thanks for your response which I think adds further clarity to the direction that Dgad should take and possibly the direction Dgad should not take ie. DVD-a.

If you walk in to any well stocked music store in the U.S., stocked well in Classical & Other music & go to the new format section and compare the titles available on the two formats you will clearly see an emerging trend:

1.SACD - mostly classical, new PURE DSD recordings, archived classical & archived modern artists.

2.DVD - mostly new mainstream commercial recordings and opera w/visiual.

Yes, so If your priority is Classical / small accoustic ensembles and want the largerst choice and highest chance of getting the least processed version of that musical event then SACD and particularly PURE DSD versions are your best bet.

I am not looking at DVD-A because, at 48, I am looking for the best versions of the classical stereo recordings of the last 40 years & Re-masterd Hi res re-issues of my favourite mainstream artists of the last 40 years...artists like Peter gabriel , Eric Clapton etc...who the record labels have been archiving to DSD since 1999.

So, to an extent the decision for anyone, on which way to go at this particular time is very much dependent on both the genre of music you are interested in & your age group.

YOUNG/ NON audiophile - MP3 / CD
MIDDLE AGED / knows what accoustic music sounds like - DSD

I agree with Cello in just about everything, ie. keep you vinyl and enhance you CD collection preferably with re-masters / HYBRIDS.

However, rather than investing in improving Dgads already good vinyl reproduction say 10%, Dgad should go Meitner and thereby elevate Dgad's entire CD library by a far higher percentage...

Dgad & I have heard the magic that the Meitner and their Proprietary digital transport can achieve on CD & SACD...

The situation is somwhat similar to when CD came out in 1982... Since 1982, the market arguably, has got some of the finest Vinyl replay equipment ever as the popularity of the format was fading.

Likewise Meitner, in converting Red book CD to DSD has a piece of hardware which can elevate your entire CD library AND AT THE SAME TIME GET YOU INTO THE PUREST OF THE CURRENT HI-RES FORMATS....go listen & you will beleive!!

There is no denying, the future in all aspests of audio & video communication is digital..and what a wonderfull thing it is when done right...pity we had to wait over 20 years for CD.

It would be interesting to hear from Dgad (who posted the question) now thinks and specifically where to invest now.

yours in music

ceol

Just to add that if you are into classical -- you can go to goodwill and pick up an enormous amount of LPs $1 or $2 each. As with all formats some are recorded incredibly well (Decca especially) and some are not even worth listening to. But at a buck a piece its better than spending $25 and find out you got a bad SACD remaster (which they do make - not all SACDs sound good)just like CD and Vynil.

I guess the question you have to answer is do you want to have 3 different front ends and 3 different forms of software? Of course the hybrid option helps that a little. But 3 quality front ends and no guarantee about the future? Hope you have a lot of money to spend.

Digital is not the future. It is the present. Everything is already digital. And guess what digital is trying to approach? Analog -- so why is digital the direction instead of analog (which is what we hear in) CONVENIENCE nothing more.

How do you get better than analog with 1s and 0s????

It's like trying to make a perfect circle with legos. You can keep adding smaller and smaller legos and it will continue to become smoother, but it will never actually make a perfect circle.

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Robm321 - Nice post - Well said....
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I want to thank everyone for their help. I ended up deciding to purchase the Simon Yorke. I will be posting a thread in a few months comparing the Yorke to the Hyperspace. My decision was very complicated. In the end, I felt the Yorke is really a final step in Analogue where afterwards I can focus on other areas such as speakers etc. Also, if I find the sound comparison between the Yorke & the Hyperspace close or not to my musical taste I can always sell it. Lastly, my other idea was to upgrade the tonearm on the Hyperspace. The cost was equal to the Yorke less the price of selling the Hyperspace. It was an interesting opportunity. Maybe to get a Vector, Schroeder or new Graham Phantom. But the cost was equal to buying the Yorke w. tonarm, Vibraplane, Walker motor drive. Also the Yorke is know to be most musical with its own tonearm & that more or less eliminates changing tonearms (maybe adding a second but that is a different story). As for not choosing SACD, I feel that SACD has decent software that is to my liking. The major problem is that SACD probably is a stop gap & you will need to start all over again soon enough. I can see a new format in a more compact form coming out within the next few years replacing SACD & making the investment a waste. Once again thanks.

Ceol is absolutely correct in his extensive appraisals. For the last several years I listened almost exclusively to a high line vinyl set-up: Basis Debut V Vacuum, Graham 2.2, Dynavector DRT-XV, Manley Steelhead + $5k worth of wire to tie everything together- $30k+ total. I bought an Audio Aero Capitole Mk.II and still listened mostly to the vinyl rig. I then bought the original Meitner set-up w/ modded Philips, DAC 6, and Switchman II. With the exception of a few direct-to-disc recordings, the Meitner rig SMOKED the vinyl rig. Most importantly the Meitner gear TOTALLY REVITALIZED my CD collection, which is the heart of many of our music collections. I simply could not justify owning a mostly inferior, mostly redundant (title-wise) vinyl rig.

The indecision about the future of SACD, or any other hi-def. format, is really secondary to the importance of the superior Meitner CD reproduction. CD WILL NOT be replaced by ANY NEW FORMAT!! CD will remain the digital format of choice for virually all new recordings. I believe that the replacement for CD will be a downloadable format- yet to be introduced. SACD is an interesting niche product, nothing more. SACD will perish, as will DVD-A because the mass market doesn't give a %%*# about the slight sonic superiority of these audiophile formats. Without mass market demand these formats are doomed.

If one can purchase a transcendental CD playback system- AKA Meitner system,to listen to the mass market digital format of choice- AKA CD, with very little chance of obsolescence in the foreseeable future, AND could probably pocket a bunch of money by selling a mostly redundant playback system- AKA Vinyl--- it seems the choice is not terribly complicated. If the hardcore vinyl hobbyists want to keep their vinyl rigs for personal / nostalgic reasons- more power to them. But from a price/performance standpoint there is little argument what is the best approach.

Just my 22 cents worth.