SACD versus Vinyl LPs

The magic words are: “well-made LP.” (Well, also “patience,” for finding that “well-made LP.”)

I've have to echo the above responses. I have a Esoteric DV50 and a SME 20/2, SME IV.Vi arm, Lyra Helikon cart.

So my analog is much more expensive than my digital front end. However, vinyl is just plesant to listen to. Digital is really good...but not quite as involving.

Vinyl is a pain, digital is easy...but if you want the best, vinyl still rules.

As far as recording quality, I think both formats suffer from good and bad recordings. You never really know what you get until you listen.

My experience has been the same as yours. Since I already had alot of well-cared-for LPs, I had to invest some $ in playback. For reference, I have a MMF-7/Eroica, Project phono amp (soon to be upgraded) playback. My quality LPs sound so much better than my standard CDs played on my Classe CD player, with Aragon Stage One pre-amp analog bypass. I invested only $1000 in vinyl playback. I have yet to find that SACD is significantly better, but I do not have an ultra expensive SACD player. I am waiting for the quality of the SACDs to go up and the price to go down! Good luck.

My TT/arm and cartridge cost virtual the same as my Sony SCD 777es. The difference is less than $50, so theoretically the sound should be similar (yeah I know, there is seldom any 'real world' correlation).

The sound of the LP set up is much better than SACD, SACD is much better than redbook. I have around 25-30 SACD's and probably 1400 LPs so I have heard a lot of direct comparisons. DSOTM is one that I have on regular LP, MFSL LP, 30th anniversary LP, and SACD. I have had lots of fun playing each of them for people and letting non-audiophile music lover compare the formats.

The results are always: (Starting with the least impressive and going to the best)
1) CD
2) SACD
3) LP
4) MFSL LP
5) 30th anniversary LP

I have never done this comparison where there was any variation in the results. Most of these people began with the idea that LPs were a washed-up old medium, that CDs are the pinnacle of human achievement, and most did not know that SACD existed.

It is easier to get better sound from a less expensive TT than it is to get good sound from an expensive CDP.

LP beats SACD. This is not surprising. It's a shame too, since I grew up with digital. I would have preferred not having to adopt vinyl. For for the ultimate in sound quality (for most of us) vinyl is still king. I adopted SACD prior to vinyl and ended up abandoning the former is favor of the latter. It also did not help that the selection of titles (older classical and heavy metal) were better on vinyl than on SACD. I look forward to perhaps adopting SACD at a latter date when players have improved and when more classical titles are available.

My $0.02

Aaron