Vinyl vs. CD


Hey out there,I've been listening to a high quality CD playback system for the past couple years and have recently become interested in going to turntable rig.(I still have an LP collection).I have a quality tube pre with phono and decided to buy an inexpensive turntable to spin some of my old favorites (Rega 2 with grado silver) I had no pre-conceived notion of what would sound better,I just remember the enjoyment I got from playing Hendrix, Rolling Stones ect.on an a good ole' record player.After listening to the Rega for a few days I switched back to CD's (Meridian 500 trans 566/24 dac)and found that the remastered CD issues of the same LP's sounded alot better.Must I drop several K's to experience "Vinyl Dreams" ?
mar00
I'm still listening to vinyl on my first turntable, a Dual 1219. When records were all I had, I replaced the cartridge once a year religiously as part of the vinyl/altar offering ritual. I still clean each one before I play it. Now I'm hooked on CD's. But never ever ever do I think about wasting another buck on vinyl. It sounds as pleasing as it needs to for me. I like it alot. But I don't compare the two, or expect them to sound alike. Vinyl is quite dead in a contemporary sense, unless you groove on finding new titles somwhere and go through the (don't tell me, I now how easy you think it is) hassle of getting them. In fact, years ago I made metal tapes of most of my LP's on my Nakamichi 3-head and much prefer listening to them. Way more convenient, and ya get to hear both sides! Whine all ya want about what I'm missing. I just don't care. Good CD rings my bell. Finally analog, put simply, means a likeness or copy. Real life isn't analog, it's live and if you're lucky, original too.
hi brian, no, you *dint* misunderstand me - run thru a cary slp98 preamp, there was absolutely *no* difference between the $500 nad cd-changer & the $1700 alchemist nexus cd player on my system, which is as stated previously. (*everything* sounds better thru a melos music director preamp, tho!). i've not listend to the resolution audio cd-55 thru my system, but my brother-in-law has compared it w/the alchemist nexus on *his* system: alchemist kraken preamp, audio research vt100 mkII, proac 2.5's. miniscule changes between them both, he reports. both also sound better thru the kraken than straight-in. also, a *big* improvement w/a new a-r ls16 preamp he *yust* purchased. so, what's not right? perhaps my nad cd-changer is a giant-killer? it did receive a class-d s'phile rating, after all! ;~) regards, doug
The original poster was unfair in his comparison. Would he be satisfied with the performance a 500 CD player?
Hi Mar00; Sorry, I didn't mean to sort of "take over" your thread, but at least all the above is "on topic", and I hope useful to you. John_1; I too had a new LP of CJs "The Trinity Session" and with the MMF-5 TT it had excessive "white noise" that was clearly audible during quiet passages, and I was generally disappointed with it compared to the CD-- BTW that is one of my favorite albums and I am very familiar with the music. YOU OTHER VINYL LOVIN' BUGGERS-- I appreciate your civil responses:), and I suppose this is one of those questions that is trying "unscrute the unscrutable". Cheers. Craig.
Hi Gmorris; We were posting at the same time, so I missed your comment. No, I would not be satisfied with a $500. CD player after having my present system. But you don't have to spend as much on an analog system to equal HQ CD--IMHO, eg I think Doug is right, and I would GUESS that his $2K analog rig is as good as my $10K+ (MSRP) digital rig. My problem with analog-- and it's personal-- is that I could not listen past the various background noises of LPs, and for that reason, I found LPs fatiguing-- loud ticks and pops did not bother me. The Audio Advisor sales rep. told me a better cartridge would help reduce the surface noise, but would not eliminate it. Cheers. Craig.