I answered my own question.
It is distracting and misleading to listen to a lot of old, so so LPs.
But when I put on those relatively few good recordings THEN I HEAR THE FULL POTENTIAL. And I do have quite a few of those.
The ones I really like, I play twice or more. BUT, I still hesitate to spend $600+ on three records from Better-Records thinking of my $15 good sounding ones. I have had about 50% luck with 180 gram reissues. I did try 2 Hot Stampers and was not impressed enough to keep them. One, a Super Hot for $99, I could not listen to side 2! Sure, a lot of it depends on liking the music.
The other bottom line is “good enough is good enough”.
But in upgrading there is a real effort to upgrade the sound. It is not merely “shopaholic”. I always think that I love the sound until I do even a small upgrade. With Covid I am listening to my system much more than ever. And because we are now not traveling, I am more inclined to buy.I do listen to digital when I watch Amazon and Netflix at night.
Then it is great but intellectual. But the TT rig is emotional.
“Wow, it sounds great” compared to “wow, I am speechless”.
It is distracting and misleading to listen to a lot of old, so so LPs.
But when I put on those relatively few good recordings THEN I HEAR THE FULL POTENTIAL. And I do have quite a few of those.
The ones I really like, I play twice or more. BUT, I still hesitate to spend $600+ on three records from Better-Records thinking of my $15 good sounding ones. I have had about 50% luck with 180 gram reissues. I did try 2 Hot Stampers and was not impressed enough to keep them. One, a Super Hot for $99, I could not listen to side 2! Sure, a lot of it depends on liking the music.
The other bottom line is “good enough is good enough”.
But in upgrading there is a real effort to upgrade the sound. It is not merely “shopaholic”. I always think that I love the sound until I do even a small upgrade. With Covid I am listening to my system much more than ever. And because we are now not traveling, I am more inclined to buy.I do listen to digital when I watch Amazon and Netflix at night.
Then it is great but intellectual. But the TT rig is emotional.
“Wow, it sounds great” compared to “wow, I am speechless”.