Is it all worth it?

With my setup I really like to listen to the relatively few albums I have. But, in terms of sheer time listening, digital definitely wins the day. I’ve got some huge, very eclectic playlists and it is nice to just put one on, hit random, and go. As mentioned, with albums you get the hits plus all the fill. Some fill is better than others. These days, I’m only buying albums that I know I will like, and will want to fully listen to. Otherwise, a one hit wonder album is just not worth it.

Yup, totally worth it to me. Always has been. I prefer how vinyl sounds, and if people think it’s all in my head, that’s fine with me. 

doubtless it has been said, or soon will be, there is a mystical attachment to the orig standard of LP playback.

Its pure old school. Ritualistic. For some even comforting and nostalgifc.

For others its the ‘only pure way to audio nirvana’, despite the myriad of tributaries so rigidly afixed to excellent big disc spinning.

IMO, its merely another source. No better or worse than some others given the current SOTA in digital.

That said, the argument for big black disc rotation, as the ‘go to’ devotion, is getting less and less attractive and especially if AND OR WHEN one considers the overall costs for a plug and play premium digital source, streamer and its associated setup.

if one travels the ones and zeros highway, there are no stylus to wear out. no beckoning cartridges to rush out and audition, no $5K CD washers to be added on. no multi thousand dollar arms to add on. no mechanical geometric orientation of the cartridge, no need for a seprate pre amp makes etc. which in all a very inviting argument for lavishing funds into the digital camp to begin or steadfastly remain.

Of late I’ve heard some mighty lofty costing analog setups that hold no edge on similarly or even lesser priced digital outfits what so ever!

With careful matching and setup and of course depending on the pockets and ears of the bit rate enthusiast, some exceptional performing converters are about for well within the means of many.

The caveat in digital as with analog, is ’what price performance’? The stellar digital front ends whose performance have turned my head as hair raising are damn expensive. Ch Precision, EMM labs and Lampy’s top tier offerings to name but a few, DA are just remarkable but run north of $25K retail routinely.

Let’s not stop there, for those whose devotion and pockets run deep, dCS and MSB have other ideas which will drain bank accounts of close to the $100K market for a complete arrangement of their devices running in concert!

But to think digital is the path of least resistance is quite naive. its roots are nearly as deep as those of the 10 inch platters past time. Recordings or pressing quality in both arenas is anyone’s guess prior to its sampling or playback.

Least one voting for pure bit renderings gets away scott free thinking they have found the spiritrual path to audacious audio, there remains the eventual fallout or acquisition of ‘digitalis nervosa’ ordinarily known as ‘click-itis’, an ADD like syndrome one soon attains as playback no longer is festooned with that long walk to and from the album rack to the phono. No more cleaning the vyinyl and squaring up the needle drop, only to repeat the process a few minutes later.

In the digital, cloud HDD storage or streaming service 978 skidillion tracks are begging and shouting for your attention and its soon a clickity click affair and songs become truncated by whim and lust for more content and the thirst soon turns into a ravenous rapacious morass of ceasless taps swipes, or clicks, as one seeks more variety or merely better quality cuts from what ever catalog or storage inventory is on tap.

FMM, its all digital, al the time.

regardless the regimin, One simply gets in where one wishes, shiny disc or dark, and hopefully strives towards contentment, when ever or where ever that location lays.

Worth it! I enjoy the whole regiment of cleaning, listening, flipping sides, cleaning, listening, and on and on.....to me, when it all comes together with a certain records, I take a deep breath and sit back in utter joy (big grin) and just feel at peace that all my hard work paid off. I guess its not for everyone, but when you do reach the point where it does come together, it's hard to describe. Yes, I like my CDs as well, less work than LPs, and don't always have the time or patience for vinyl , so to me me the CD is my go to option. Steaming is ok, I generally use it to find new music that I may like to actually purchase a LP or CD of. I never buy anything virtually, downloading etc. To me, that is not really owning anything. I like the tangeable aspect that LPs and CDs provide. Oh and cassettes are my third option, I love the retro aspect of popping in a cassette, brings me back to my teen years in the eighties. I'm still running the same Aiwa f770 I bought in high school in 1983!