Changing from Vinyl to Digital in Brave New World

Peterayer: I think you nailed it- a turntable with fewer demands of space, time and energy, and killer smaller speakers. The contrarian in me, after so many years of basic amp-preamp (currently add the third box, phono stage) loves the idea of an integrated. On the digital side, I'm way more intererested in non-CD digital audio, and maybe as you suggested, I could experiment. It is obviously the next wave and while i've never been a computer hobbyist, it might be fun if tied to music. As Rtilden pointed out, there is the temptation to get all crazy on that front, and be in the same place, with expensive black boxes.
Part of this is also motivated by ease of use. I hate to admit it, but the notion of warming up the tube amps, warming up the cartridge, etc. is always an obstacle to just playing music. And, if I don't buy or rent a space with a dedicated room, I'll have the system in my living space, which raises additional issues (ahem, two cats, ahem).
As to space saving, the current pile of vinyl takes up a good amount of space. I just computed, very back of the napkin, using 100 discs per linear foot, and actually probably have 10,000 records, maybe more. The frightening thing (maybe this thread should be relabelled -confessions of a vinyl junkie) is that I have never organized them. Oh, yeah, when i find yet another copy of Way Out West, or the umpteenth copy of Rickie Lee Jones' first album, I put it with the others. How many pressings of Tea for the Tillerman should one person own (especially when the UHQR boxed set that cost stupid money, even when i bought it at the time it came out) sounds far less lively than the island pink label that I bought off the street in Greenwich Village for a buck?
Thank you for helping me think this through.
So, should I start another thread on serious, trouble free turntables? (SME sounds terrific; I had the Kuzma Reference before the XL with a Triplanar and it was also set and forget, no isolation issues; any others that are of this ilk?)
And integrated amps (I love the Dartzeel concept, even the fact that it measured lousy per that Stereophile review; Burmeister? Boulder? I don't need one with a phono stage if I keep the Manley Steelhead, but here we go again with boxes).
And, monitors: I want to hear the Magico V3 which seems like a lot of bang for the buck, used; I have never really warmed up to Wilson speakers. Any other relatively small killer monitor style speaker that is a must listen to and would enjoy a relationship with a SS, rather than tube amp?
Man, this feels like a sex change. But fun. :) Thanks everybody.

I would keep your LPs until you are very sure you like your new digital system. I did the same thing, and ultimately went back to LPs. I am glad I only sold off a few in the process (which I had to pay alot of money to replace).

this post brings up an interesting point. Just how much space does a typical classic rock album take up on a hard disk? I am thinking about adding a hard disk based front end to my system and will probably start with a TB size portable hard disk drive.

Whart, my earlier post was actually very serious. I think, based on what you say, that you would seriously regret giving up on vinyl completely. I would suggest that you cull the collection for the move, and that you could probably replace just about all of it easily in the Austin area. There are quite a lot of great used record stores. I also seriously doubt you will have to downsize your system as much as you seem to think. I would wait to do this until you know for sure exactly where you are going to live and see what space you have.

That's what I'm talking about! By keeping your favorite records and using a reduced and efficient equipment scheme, you can balance your needs and ease into this whole thing. Trying to maintain a truly high-end system with fewer components will also be a challenge in selecting just the right stuff. I was envisioning tall, slender speakers and using a multi-shelf equipment stand with a small footprint. I, too, have space restrictions, and my SOTA Cosmos TT sits on the top of my 24"x22" Billy Bags stand. The suspended SOTA tables have a smaller footprint than most others, AND they look like furniture! One more thing: Unless you sell all your LPs, I don't see any way for you to avoid going through them all to decide which ones to keep!