When is digital going to get the soul of music?

What is a digital Lp? Lps mastered from digital tapes. From about '78 to '82(?) digital tape was available, but not the CD. One could only buy digital records, with the word DIGITAL splashed proudly across the front with all sorts of technical info on back. CD's came out later, but Classical records continued to be pressed simultaneously by the majors, (Decca/DG/Nonesuch/Philips, etc) until about '89. They're not bad at all. I particularly recommend Ashkenazy's Rachmaninov cycle and Mackerrass' Janacek.

i once read an interview with Tom Shultz (guitar gear designer, lead player for Boston) and he felt that the elimination of Phase distortion in the digital relm got rid of a lot of the environmental cues (i.e. sence of space) that are present in analog. maybe he's on to something. My digital set up is pretty darn nice but i can easily get drawn into extended album spinning that is much more rewarding and my analog is low end Linn arm on a CJ walker table using a B&O reciever for a phono pre...not much to speak of. Maybe Tom is onto something.

I can't find the comment, but he said something like I last listened to digital in 1988, enough said. His comment has a ring of truth, but I want to address the importance of history here. For instance, I 100% deoxited and 100% progolded my Oritek X-2 interconnects recently. At first they sounded harder, later that changed. To see if they benefited from this, I went back to my old Hi-Fi Answers information. It said that if something got louder after a change, it was better(this is in the analog days). Another thing they said, if it made more albums listenable it was better. I would have to agree, but I put the final decision on the Ori, of Oritek Audio.

I want to address something else about history here. I am 54 years old and I count on something I did over 25 years ago as important, or more so, than anything I have done since. I tried to set up an Ariston RD11E with a Grace arm, and Osawa-22 mat. The belt kept coming off. It was almost impossible, yet I learned a lot. I learned that one spring corresponded to what comes out of one speaker. Another spring corresponded to what comes out of the other speaker. The third spring had to do with the middle. I also learned that its three feet were also audible. One side of the cartridge screws(its alignment) corresponded to what one heard from one speaker. The other side of the cartridge corresponded to what comes out of the other speaker. Anti-skate is also audible. Just understand the theory and use the whole record on anti-skate.

My last two comments were a prelude to my next statement, mostly directed to the ecomically challenged out there. You can get music from something like a Rega-Planar 3(straight arm, preferable), or as Alex suggests, a Music Hall turntable. The software here can cost as little as a dollar. My recommendation is for pre-1982 albums.