Vinyl or wait for the new stuff??

Be cautious, be very cautious. I love vinyl and find it far superior to any CD player I've experienced (Wadia, Goldmund, Theta, Sonic Frontiers, Sony) in my system. However, vinyl requires dedication and effort from the user. It's nowhere near as convenient to use (there's no remote control). Every 20 minutes you have to get up and do something. Vinyl playback also requires the listener to understand and execute precise setup procedures. In order to maximize performance you must have a steady hand and know what good sound sounds like. Many people can not deal with this level of commitment. A high quality, but not outrageous turntable, arm, cartridge, phono preamp and record cleaning machine will cost roughly $10,000. It will out perform any and all CD playback systems. But SO WHAT! My advice is to wait. As much as I love vinyl, I recognize that it's a dying format. IMO, CD digital is "okay" to at best "good", hi-bit rate/sample rate digital promises to equal, if not better vinyl as an accurate and musically engaging format. If vinyl was right for you, you wouldn't have posted your question.

vinyl *isn't* as convenient as cd, but, when i'm doing serious listening, changing a record every 15-20 minutes is not really a big deal - it's actually a bit of a break to stretch, etc. and, ya, i *do* have to treat my records w/special care, unlike cd's. as far as the inherent background noise, ya, it *is* there on some discs, but, i guess as i've been listening to albums since i was a kid - about 1965 - it really is not a distraction to me. i can listen thru it to the music. i *can* see how it would be annoying, to folks not used to it. regarding onhwy61's comment that it takes $10k for a high-quality analog rig - sure you *can* spend that much, but it's surely not necessary - especially if ya buy used equipment. my current rig, at $2k, i think is pretty outrageous, if i say so myself, and, when done, i will have almost $3k into it. but ya don't have to spend even this much for a rig that'll be more musical than current digital. a brand-gnu rega planar 25 is ~$1300, & it's awesome. regarding digital, i have found that a really excellent preamp helps me to enjoy it - but i still like vinyl better! :>) doug

2 true that vinyl requires a "commitment" but it's worth it. from your post, myoussif, i assume u already have sum vinyl, leftover from bygone times. if so, u cannot believe how it will sound on a really good analouge frontend. those who say, "u hafta listen past the background" have likely not experienced the velvety background silence that u can attain with a well-cleaned record on, say, a basis debut vacuum tt/ graham 2.0 ceramic arm/ koetsu onyx platinum cartridge combo played thru an aesthetix io phono pre. course it'll set u back a few k$, but what doesn't? the musical experience u may attain is far more satisfying than u can expect with today's digital. and, even if the lp is a dying medium, u can still get around 300,000 more lp titles (new & used) than are available as dvda's or sacd's.

........some really good posts above, and I appreciate not being "attacked" for my preference for digital-- it's a personal thing. I do agree that you probably have to spend a lot more money to get HQ digital music than you do for HQ analog music, and both Myoussif and I have done that(I have a Levinson 37 transport and 360S DAC). Cheers. Craig.

Vinyl is great if you are willing to make the investment in time and equipment. Even without it I would not wait around for the "next thing" in digital. There is nothing wrong with what is out there now (standard digital playback)if you match components carefully.