are digital recordings on vinyl any better than CD

Tape is the only true audiophile medium, in my view, and it shows even when the original is not tape. I am not surprised at all. But you do need good reel to reel to fully appreciate it. Cassette has its limits, and I think I have reached them.

As an additional note, I have one Vertex cassette that I played probably 500 times, and though mechanically it does show age, it sounds just as it did the first time. Try that with any record on any turntable. And I keep playing it every week or so. But I almost never rewind or fastforward, that's how you wear tapes. And I clean playback head about every ten hours of play.

Tape is a natural medium. It breathes. The cassettes I have of Heifetz violin concertos on RCA Living Stereo exceed their CD bretheren in terms of forcefulness, tone, detail and overall musicality. It actually sounds like a Guarneri and not something generic.

Inna, the clutch went out just recently on my Otari MX 5050; that's the 4 channel that comes in two pieces. I will give it to you if you pay shipping. I have two professional shipping cases. It was working perfectly before the clutch went out.

I have no idea how much repair costs, but I'm not going to get it repaired.

You pay shipping and it's yours

Tostados, it's not at all subjective in regard to LP or CD when the total cost of your analog rig is a minimum of 4K. I know I said 3K once before, but cartridges seem to have gone up, so that is 3K for the table and in the vicinity of 1K for the cartridge.

I have it with the "analogers" (that's what I call them) because their always making outlandish claims, like a run of the mill TT will sound better than CD, and that's just not true.