Funny how streaming/digital still chases that analog benchmark.

@mrbobm  Amen!

As far as collecting vinyl as an investment. Put your money in stocks.

When I close my eyes and the performer is standing in my room in front of me how much does it matter if it's vinyl or a streamer?  Personally, I like to play several of the streaming acoustic stations and when I run across an artist I like I just enter the name in Tidal and play any of their albums I like without even having to get up from my chair.  If you chose to thi8nk your clicks and pops sound better and like spending time cleaning vinyl and refiling it be my guest.....  both vinyl and CDs are really yesterday now.  BTW, get your Tidal at Best Buy, Hi-Fi for $10 a month.

I can't understand why audiophiles spend so much money on a turn table, cartridge and vinyl?  I hear often a lot of noise with the needle is tracking on a record.  Andy, you have to get up, wash the record you want to listen to and spend all that money on vinyl.  I prefer to stream music through my BlueSound Node 2i.  I can sit in comfort and never have to get up and select music from a huge Tidal library.  I must be deaf because I don't hear that much difference other the noise from the needle tracking on a record groove.  I also think there must be a reason why Tidal offered MQA Master recordings.  It is my understanding MQA offers the original recording that has not been remixed or tampered with.  However, what if the original recording was not a very high quality recording to begin with.  I also preferred the sound of my BlueSound without adding the DAC I purchased.  The bass sounded thin.  However, it was nice to view what the bit rates and degree of hi-res the recording was.

You all know more than I do, as I am just learning and I am not as wealthy as those in the group to buy such expensive systems.  Besides, my wife would kill me anyway.  We use the living room that was only used 3 times per year to watch movies and to listen to music.  My speakers, REL S2 subwoofers and cabinet look beautiful as well.  

I ended up buying a pair of Paradigm Prestige 85F towers and I still wonder if I should have purchase a pair of Focal 948 towers.  When I listened to the Focal's I didn't think they produced enough bass extension.  However, perhaps I should have considered adding the REL subwoofers at the time of purchase to fill in the lows.  However, it would have been difficult to get my wife to accept the price tag of adding the REL's.  Another concern I had was the size of the Focal 948's.

golfmd21

I find it remarkable that records sound as good as they do given the obsolete technology.

Perhaps the analog LP technology is not nearly as obsolete as you think. Obsolescence probably applies more rightfully to CDs, although I think they are also going to be around for a long time.

Re: “clueless 17 year olds”...

My 18 year old has his own music studio with some great kit - some beautiful monitors his grandfather made the cabinets for out of cherry; some 9x2 line arrays so his band can hear themselves well; two subs to fill things out; Mac mini server; nice DAC, room treatment, DSP profile to correct what the treatment can’t; and from what I hear through the walls a taste for all the genres and generations of music I’ve heard of and far far more. He writes, plays and records his own music of broadcast quality. He’s off to a music academy in September.


He’s interested in vinyl like he is interested in 35mm film cameras, clocks with pendulums, telephones with dials, paper maps, stick shift cars, encyclopaedias, lending libraries, department stores, V8 engines, coal fired power stations, police officers on horses, the postal service, and trains.
It doesn’t matter how often I say “but a V8 has soul”. He will say “a Tesla is faster, cheaper, greener, smoother, quieter, smarter, safer, more considerate, and exciting.” We are both right. To his credit he doesn’t say I’m wrong. 

Some of us could learn a lot from our teenagers.