Turntable got absolutely crushed by CD

rauliruegas,

""" Good that first of all you are a music lover. """

I'm sorry, I did in fact miss that first sentence.  Glad we are agreed there :)

Yes, it's well known that home stereo reproduction is an illusion.  All sound reproduction is a compromise of one sort or another, so we all pick our own via the criteria that means the most to us. 

I'm glad you have found a goal for your own journey.

The distinction between 'sound lovers' and 'music lovers' is totally artificial and not helpful at all. We can assume that the main reason for getting involved in this audio community is an interest in music. If not why bother? The other reason would be the personal discovery that the enjoyment of music increases with better sound quality. This affliction puts us in the peculiar minority group called audiophiles. I'm sure you're all aware that most people who love music (musicians included) couldn't care less about sound quality. But it's highly unlikely that people with an interest in sound quality couldn't care less about music. They'd get themselves another hobby if they didn't.

Suspension of disbelief can be a powerful experience and everyone on this forum is chasing that illusion. You can have alot of fun in the process, but going down this rabbit hole does kinda make you loose track of what it's really about. The difference between Audio Nirvana and Audio Nervosa is keeping in mind why you're in this game. 'It's the music, stupid'......

This is not an easy pursuit and after a while many disillusioned veteran audiophiles seek redemption, attempting to find their way back to the music and the emotional response it once triggered. Some may feel that their meticulously built system is the 'elephant in the room' (often literally so), standing between them and the music. They might feel betrayed and decide to downgrade or even loose interest in music completely. 

The persistent audio illusionist (that means us) might decide to keep changing around the components of the system or even maintain several systems at once with different strenghts for various types of music. Because they realize there's no such thing as 'one size fits all' in audio. This would only fuel more illusions, would it not? Digital illusion, analog illusion, tube illusion, horn illusion, dipole illusion, MC illusion, the list is endless and so are the debates.

Perhaps, but nature likes diversity, so why not take a cue from life? I'm sure the audio industry would be delighted.....

edgewear,
Perceptive and well put!

Yes, it’s chasing the dragon to some degree. A lot depends on one’s objectives and where one decides to get off the merry go round. When the early settlers moved West a lot of them decided the hardships weren’t worth it and decided to settle in the Midwest. 😛

I know I'm about a year late on this thread, but only recently have I had an experience to contribute. 

I've been all digital for over 30 years. I decided to buy an entry level turntable just to plug it in the system to see how it would compare. I bought a used Shinola Runwell table and mounted an Ortofon 2M black cartridge on it. I hooked it to my preamp with Cardas Clear interconnects. 

Results? Clicks and pops and surface noise. But the musical reproduction was shockingly close to my $35K digital CD rig. For 10% the cost. 

Now I am unclear how to proceed toward better sound. I do have a great SACD player, and Yes, SACD is slightly better than state-of-the-art CD, to my ears.
I am limited in the titles I own in both vinyl and SACD, so an investment in software is a given, no matter which way I choose.

So, can I get better sound investing into a high res digital system? Aurender comes to mind, doing digital downloads. Or $35K into a vinyl system? Turntable, arm, cartridge, and phono preamp.