Turntable got absolutely crushed by CD

@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.

Elizabeth, I have 7,000 78s and about 1,500 CDs from 78 sources.  They sound great performance wise and often with great mid-range and dynamics (especially the electricals).  For 78s, I use my old VPI 19-4 with an ultracraft 400C arm and a grado 78 cartridge, Marantz 7T pre-amp and VPI SDS speed controller.  Truly enjoyable experience but with added effort.  As to well transferred, remastered 78s on CD (also LPs), by guys like Marston, Hardwicke, Obert-Thorn, Andreas Meyer, etc., well there's often gold in the sound as well as performances worthy of them.  I've had a friend/Cal Tech engineer (departed) who were able to play early acoustic 78s with the correct stylus and e.q. on a huge horn system sound like 50's mono LPs.  Truly amazing and exciting.  

My own system has well mastered/pressing 50/60s LPs sound just more lively than well remastered CDs.  But, the CDs can stand on their own for enjoyment  (VPI TNT VI/SME IV/Benz Ruby 3... versus EAR Acute CD player).  I have 25,000+ LPs in my collection.  Each evening, I start with a CD and end 2 hours later listening to CDs, or start with an LP and end up listening to LPs at the end.  78s are a pain to play.  I'm thinking of buying a Simply Vinyl Sugarcube wo copy them to digital without the surface noise (especially with cheap shellac 78s).