The past meets the future

@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.

Ya gotta love the ritual attendant to playing vinyl. When you're done and drop the needle you then have to get up and change the record 3 times to listen to a  Mahler symphony. Talk about a distraction!

Seriously I'd prefer a SOTA vinyl system sound any day. (I had one close to about 10years ago - I gave it to my grandson-in-law and a large collection of vinyl to go with it). But by then I had gotten some good digital stuff, some good CD's, and it all changed. Now I could play the music I wanted to hear. With vinyl I was mainly listened to how great it imaged and made my music sound. Perhaps not a big deal for most folks but for me it was a distraction from hearing the musical content. And I could listen to my Mahler, etc, in one sit down! :-) I guess I'm not a real audiophile  after all.