Vinyl or wait for the new stuff??

And Joe, merely stating that you "respect someone's opinion" isn't enough. Anyone can discern, from reading the context and attitude in your statements, that it is clear that YOU are the one who wants "your own totalitarian kingdom". Too bad you'll never be man enough to have one...

Why do the majority of you guys waste your time on these angry personal assaults ? Many of us have been away from vinyl for years and probably harbor many misconceptions about how vinyl stands up against digital in 2000. Vinyl is inherently more surface noisy and generally more complicated to deal with, HOWEVER, IT SOUNDS MORE ACCURATE & NATURAL THAN CD. We can debate the reasons for the differences till the cows come home, but what's the point ? If,in fact, what we are trying to do in this hobby is re-create live music in our homes- then I contend that well executed vinyl playback sounds more natural than well executed cd playback- on a dollar for dollar basis.If more natural is more correct than vinyl is better. If more natural is not more correct than I'm mixed up as to what we are supposed to be trying to achieve. The acid test- demo your favorite well recorded cd & lp of the same title and decide which sounds more natural, more pleasing- AND LEAVE IT AT THAT !!!

I've done that many times, and in addition "accuracy" was favored with the LP also. My CD player costs $3000, and my LP front end costs around $2900, including phono stage. It's easy to criticize those who are debating this, until you join in, then you might better understand. For instance, if I were Joe, I would tell you that "you simply aren't making a logical argument, and thus your thoughts have no valid basis to be included here". Only if he said it, it would be much more rude, much less evolved...And you watch, he'll say that I'm dead wrong, and treat you with the highest respect, just to spite me. I have his number, 1-800-blowhard...

One practical consideration is the availability of media. IMHO, I believe that a quality analogue front end still surpasses the best 16 bit gear available today. While I've abandoned analogue for the convienence of CD, an in-law of mine remains committed. I understand his greatest issue today is not pouring concrete turntable foundations, maintaining exotic bearing assemblies or keeping his disks microscopically clean - but the never ending hunt for decent vinyl to play. The new digital formats appear to much more closely approach analogue quality. I suspect that for whichever format emerges dominant, there will be no eventual shortage of media. So for me, I've decided to hobble along with the 16 bit stuff a little longer.

Merits to both formats. Some of the brand new digital recordings such as 'Pat Metheny and Jim hall', and the diana krall recordings sound excellent on my 44khz player. I would guess that they use tube mics to get that nice warm sound. On my equivalently priced cd/vinyl (about 3K each) systems, I do much prefer the sound of a vinyl recording to a CD. This preference has increased the as I listen to the record player more. I've only had it for a few weeks. Vinyl has won three a/b comparisons with different recordings from different eras (the trinity session, ricky lee jones, and the original glen gould bach preludes). I like the naturalness and sense of presence that a record has. A cd recording feels like it's floating on air, whereas the vinyl feels like its sitting on a concrete foundation. CD's have an ethereal quality to them. You're a little less 'there'. It's a little like driving a windows-up air conditioned 4x4 verses hiking. Easier but more forgetable. I am hoping the newer formats like SACD, and 96khz will bring some of this 'thereness' back. After all, many of the new records are digital recordings. One of my vinyl vs CD preferences, the wonderful 'trinity session' album was made on an RDAT machine w/one microphone. Their recording equipment could probably fit into a suitcase ! Perhaps much of CD's harshness comes from downsampling. Another source of harshness may be cheap cd players. A cheap cd player emphasizes the 'digital harshness', or brittleness. Once you hear it, it bothers you.