Analogue v. Digital...again (Washington Post)

@mulveling this article is NOT about Tom Port.  Did you read the entire article?

I wouldn't trash gear just because it's old. We are enjoying very modest incremental improvements on analog equipment these days. They are real advances, but small and expensive. Some old troglodyte in the 1960s with a Decca cartridge, Garrard turntable, Quad tube amps and electrostatics* was having a pretty good time and one that would stand up today as being very respectable.

*I chose these as all are still made today, an indication of their solid design and performance.

@tswisla I agree. I don’t think @mulveling read the whole article, and it was a long one, but worthy; the author is a good writer. To me, it was all about his journey back into vinyl and who he met on the way, to include not only the opinionated Tom Port but also Michael Fremer and the lady with the pop-up record store in Cleveland, Ohio and others ‘making the (vinyl) scene’ during the COVID crisis. He ends the article in Fremer’s basement listening to Bob Dylan and Joan Baez live recording from the Newport Jazz Festival: he was transported back in time, an experience  to which any fan of vinyl playback can relate, I think. 

The article is actually about Tom Port of Better Records, quite frankly he comes off as an off-putting nutcase. And he can’t help himself from trashing respectable companies like Analogue Productions. So he uses the following gear to listen to $7 common records and anoint a portion of them as $500 "super hot stampers":

• Dynavector Karat
• Triplanar arm
• VPI Aries
• Legacy Focus 20/20 Speakers

That’s a pretty damn good return on his circa-2000 gear investment.

The Triplanar is still one of the best tonearms money can buy. What is so year 2000 about that? The Triplanar has improved since 20 years ago FWIW...