The past meets the future

Welcome Home once again

It is such a pleasure to hear such fidelity and musicality from a ritual I have performed since a teenager

I've often told people new to vinyl, that if they don't like the "ritual" they might not like vinyl. But there is something about the ritual that is peaceful and maybe reflective which can be cathartic in this days of hustle & bustle. Plus, I found that I get lazy when listening to digital. I just let it play and as a consequence, I wasn't hearing the variety of music that I prefer

@ohlala

Good question. I fortunately have an Audio Research Ref DAC and Audio Research Phono stage as well as Preamp and amp. I carefully chose my cartridge to match my taste. The result has been fantastic in both ends have exactly the same character… so the difference has been almost exclusively in detail.

For the last year the two ends were virtually identical in sound quality. At this point the digital end was about $5K more expensive than tne analog end ($45K D / $40K A).

So, I recently upgraded the tone arm and sub-chassis to the Ekos SE and Keel. Now the two ends are virtually exactly the same price at around $45K. The turntable has pulled ahead in detail and soundstaging on good recordings. I say that because I don’t sit around comparing the same recordings. I know the two ends really well. Analog gets the nod.

The upgrade of the TT was worth it. But the character of the two ends are exactly as I like and overwhelmingly sound the same… so I am not disappointed at all listening to the digital end despite the possibility of getting a bit more detail using the tt… often it takes an audiophile pressing in vinyl to get the analog end to sound strikingly better. 

As you can see, I am trying to convey the fact that the difference is really pretty subtle and the sound quality of recordings are way more of a variable than which end I am using.

@tablejockey

@jasonbourne52

You are right, TTs are not going to disappear tomorrow. I always think on the long term… I guess that strategic planning being one of my professions always has me take a much longer view.

The industry is still rebounding… but I would guess it will peak over the next ten or fifteen years (a much much smaller peak than the 20th century one) as performance of digital finally eclipses sound quality over analog at all cost levels and then begins a slow decline. It will not be like slide rules which just ended over night. I still have my K&E bamboo.

Yeah, it is fun to play with stuff. I like the tradition… but when you loose the SQ advantage that is a major driver. For me the tradition was established as a child, as many of us here. That will change as the generations roll over.

Sliced bread has its place, if you're making sandwiches for a bunch of kids, but not if you want really good bread.