Really glad to read that it worked out for you. Your experience has some similarities to mine. In 2007 I had gotten to the point where I was going to go all-in for HD digital or drop it for vinyl. At the time I didn't have a turntable, but I had an LP and SACD of the same direct-to-disk recording of the Buddy Rich Big Band. I'm very familiar with Buddy's sound as I'd seen him live five times and had several recordings of his band.
I took the SACD and LP to my local high end store, and I was able to play both disks through an all-Linn system I'd never be able to afford, sourced from a 5-figure Linn SACD machine and a Sondek turntable. Of course, the SACD sounded very good, dynamic, detailed, low noise, etc. But when I switched over to the LP, the SACD sounded bleached and threadbare by comparison. It wasn's subtle, and the effect was immediate and very apparent.
Within days, after listening exclusively to digital for 20 years, I bought my first turntable in 31 years. I started with a couple of good budget cartridges--Ortofon OM20 and Shure M97xE. I started hitting thrift shops, used record stores, and their bargain boxes. It became easy and cheap to acquire entire discographies of Steely Dan, The Police, and many more. Many of my favorites are 99-cent specials.
For six straight months I didn't ever listen to one digital file, whether CD, SACD, DVD-A, or HD download. To this day, nearly 10 years later, I listen to vinyl exclusively at home.
Since adding the turntable, the 2-channel living room system it sources has grown from a modest nearfield system to handwired PTP all-tube line and phono stages, a 200 wpc mosfet amp powering a pair of Magnepan 1.7s augmented by two subwoofers. My cartridges include an Audio Technica AT150Sa (Shibata stylus), a Shelter 201, and an Audio Technica HOMC mono cartridge, each mounted to Jelco or Yamamoto headshells. I now have over 1500 LPs, most culled from thrift shops and used record stores. I also have several audiophile reissues that knock my socks off.
I get no end of pleasure from it, and spinning two or more records invariably puts a smile on my face for the rest of the day. A 4-hour listening session has the same effect for the rest of the week.
I took the SACD and LP to my local high end store, and I was able to play both disks through an all-Linn system I'd never be able to afford, sourced from a 5-figure Linn SACD machine and a Sondek turntable. Of course, the SACD sounded very good, dynamic, detailed, low noise, etc. But when I switched over to the LP, the SACD sounded bleached and threadbare by comparison. It wasn's subtle, and the effect was immediate and very apparent.
Within days, after listening exclusively to digital for 20 years, I bought my first turntable in 31 years. I started with a couple of good budget cartridges--Ortofon OM20 and Shure M97xE. I started hitting thrift shops, used record stores, and their bargain boxes. It became easy and cheap to acquire entire discographies of Steely Dan, The Police, and many more. Many of my favorites are 99-cent specials.
For six straight months I didn't ever listen to one digital file, whether CD, SACD, DVD-A, or HD download. To this day, nearly 10 years later, I listen to vinyl exclusively at home.
Since adding the turntable, the 2-channel living room system it sources has grown from a modest nearfield system to handwired PTP all-tube line and phono stages, a 200 wpc mosfet amp powering a pair of Magnepan 1.7s augmented by two subwoofers. My cartridges include an Audio Technica AT150Sa (Shibata stylus), a Shelter 201, and an Audio Technica HOMC mono cartridge, each mounted to Jelco or Yamamoto headshells. I now have over 1500 LPs, most culled from thrift shops and used record stores. I also have several audiophile reissues that knock my socks off.
I get no end of pleasure from it, and spinning two or more records invariably puts a smile on my face for the rest of the day. A 4-hour listening session has the same effect for the rest of the week.