Going the pro audio route to start is pretty smart . Very low distortion in those monitors, Amps built into the speakers , Nice cost savings , For the price of what some spend on wires here,they are full on in the game listening to great sound .
Turntable got absolutely crushed by CD
Long story short, i've just brought home a VPI classic 1 mounted with a Zu-Denon DL103 on JMW Memorial 10.5 with the appropriate heavier counterweight. Had everything dialed in..perfect azimuth, VTF, overhang, with only a slightly higher than perfect VTA. Levelling checked. All good.
I did a comparison between the VPI and my Esoteric X03SE and it's not even close. The Esoteric completely crushes the VPI in all regards. The level of treble refinement, air, decay, soundstage depth and width, seperation, tonality, overall coherence is just a simply a league above from what I'm hearing from the VPI. The only area the VPI seems to be better at is bass weight, but not by much.
I'm honestly quite dumbfounded here. I've always believed that analogue should be superior to digital. I know the Esoteric is a much pricier item but the VPI classic is supposed to be a very good turntable and shouldn't be a slouch either. At this point I feel like I should give up on analogue playback and invest further in digital.
Has anyone had a similar experience comparing the best of digital to a very good analogue setup?
Equipment:
Esoteric X03SE
VPI Classic, JMW Memorial 10.5, Zu-DL103
Accuphase C200L
Accuphase P600
AR 90 speakers
Test Record/CD:
Sarah McLachlan - Surfacing (Redbook vs MOV 180g reissue)
I did a comparison between the VPI and my Esoteric X03SE and it's not even close. The Esoteric completely crushes the VPI in all regards. The level of treble refinement, air, decay, soundstage depth and width, seperation, tonality, overall coherence is just a simply a league above from what I'm hearing from the VPI. The only area the VPI seems to be better at is bass weight, but not by much.
I'm honestly quite dumbfounded here. I've always believed that analogue should be superior to digital. I know the Esoteric is a much pricier item but the VPI classic is supposed to be a very good turntable and shouldn't be a slouch either. At this point I feel like I should give up on analogue playback and invest further in digital.
Has anyone had a similar experience comparing the best of digital to a very good analogue setup?
Equipment:
Esoteric X03SE
VPI Classic, JMW Memorial 10.5, Zu-DL103
Accuphase C200L
Accuphase P600
AR 90 speakers
Test Record/CD:
Sarah McLachlan - Surfacing (Redbook vs MOV 180g reissue)
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- 508 posts total
@maplegrovemusic Very low distortion in those monitors, Amps built into the speakers , Nice cost savings Which active monitors are you talking about ? Genelec, Yamaha, Dynaudio, Adam ? They are designed to make music, not to listen to the music, not to enjoy the music. These monitors does not reproduce bass and reguired an active sub. If anyone can make a track sounds good on awful sounding classic Yamaha NS-10 near field passive studio monitors then it will sound good on any speakers. But it’s not easy. For regular listening sessions studio monitors is very bad idea. Nice bookshelf studio monitors cost more than some audiophile speakers. I think there is nothing wrong to buy some high efficiency speakers and low power amp even to start with something hi-fi, but not pro audio (if you’re not a music producer). I’ve been to pro audio myself for years until i re-discovered what is hi-fi and why it’s much better. Some of my friends makes music, but i’ve never found nearfield active studio monitors they are using (like Genelec) to be pleasant for normal listening. Small monitors are just a pro tool for production. |
"I bet everyone would love to have a turntable and vinyl collection of the favorite albums..."That is a bit of a stretch. People do not even have favorite albums these days, much less are they interested in collecting them on vinyl in any number significant for anything except theoretical debate about marketing power. I know exactly zero people interested in having a collection of favorite albums on vinyl. I know one youngish lady (late 20s) who was very excited to buy a record player. She put it in her wish list on Amazon. A little $80 machine. She has no records and is not really planning to start buying them. She wants a record player because it looks cool and she wants to be cool. That is in her words, not mine. What the heck, even I am not interested in having a collection of my favorite albums on vinyl. And I actually have it and have just (this morning) bought yet another copy of Exile On Main St. (half-speed master) on vinyl which is far from my favorite album anyway. Those youngster LPs will find the way to thrift shops, once the urge to be cool gives way to reality of life and fitting the crib in the room becomes way more important than impressing some new companion. |
@chakster Well let's see . Dynaudio , ATC , Adam , PMC, Off the top of my head all make speakers for the home environment . Same drivers used in the studio speakers , but nicer cabinetry for the home models . So these aren't meant to be listened to for pleasure ? My experience is with Adam Audio , f7 , A7x , A8x and Classic column , and ATC . The first time I set up a pair of Adam a7x and shuffled through my library I was blown away by how every song that played was listenable . Gone was the desire to skip to tracks that sounded pleasing . Everything track was a new experience . Definitely do not agree about lack of bass but just the opposite experience . The lack of distortion is something to be said for , Turn up the volume to realistic sound levels and the sonic landscape does not change but only increase in volume . Holy grail stuff in my book . |
I like to inject some hard data into these debates. Check out this link to data about sales of various formats: https://www.riaa.com/u-s-sales-database/ If you look at the two charts on this page, it’s clear that over the last 45 years digital has outsold vinyl by far, measured in units or $ amount sold, and streaming is the growing format, not vinyl. And digital didn’t even exist for 10 of those 45 years. It looks like cassettes have outsold vinyl. I’m not putting vinyl down. If someone likes vinyl better than digital, that’s fine. Enjoy the searching, buying, cleaning, tweaking, flipping, large covers, smell and sound to your heart’s content and feel free to tell us how much you enjoy it. Same with digital. If you like to have access to millions of albums on your tablet or enjoy the sound of a well recorded and mastered CD, SACD or download, enjoy, enjoy, enjoy. It’s all good. |
- 508 posts total