Upgrade path question. Upgrade analog or turn to digital?

I guess I would start with how old are you? I’m 70 and have had vinyl all my life. So, it was great having my really good vinyl rig as a comparison as I brought my digital up to the level of my analog… a nearly forty year odyssey. I listen 98% of the time to streaming… but it is fun to spin a disk once in a while.

In general, if components are carefully chosen, it will cost around a 10 - 20% more to get the digital streaming end up to analog in systems in the $10K - $50K system cost area. In the $50 -150K systems you can do digital for about the same cost as analog for the same sound quality. After that analog pulls ahead again with the cost advantage.

But the advantages of digital are enormous. $14.99 / month for access to a nearly infinite library… Qobuz… half a million high Rez albums. So, unless you are an old fart like me I would go for digital and drop analog. I think the vinyl resurgence is peaking and in the next ten years will start falling as digital gets the cost advantage at lower price points and vinyl becomes only nostalgic. Progress in digital is rapid now.

Yeah, and put yourself at the mercy of the streaming services with their compressed data streams! They do this to get their files to fit on the 'Net pipelines. Once data is discarded it cannot be recovered!

Keep your LP playback system and get an iFi Zen Stream and a Topping DAC. That's all you will need for streaming. Keep buying LPs!

"max out the VPI Classic 1"

Listening to a Classic 1 for 10 years or so. As it is stock, it delivers enough of what the $10K+ setups do. You probably already know maxing the phonostage is paramount before sinking any money into the table.

As a platform for a better arm...a Fiekert or something with appropriate arm board to go with it, which then can be moved to a more substantial one in the future.

The 3D or gimbal will be a less costly, but not as significant in SQ, IMO.

If you don’t already have one-Phoenix Roadrunner/Sota speed controller. More accurate than VPI’s ADS.

why choose, have both! streaming is wonderful... truly the world of music at one’s fingertips, all for less than the cost of 1 lp or cd per month...