Parity

@rvpiano: No offense intended, but this is what happens when you make sound quality your first priority. I've been there myself, but now make my next musical selection based on what I'm hungering for musically. If it is also in good sound, wonderful, that's a bonus.

Being an audiophile has its benefits and pleasures, but is also in a way a curse. Remember when you loved music you heard, long before you became obsessed with sound quality? If it truly is---as we all claim---about the music, then we have to act like it is ;-) .

bdp24,

How absolutely right you are!  
I was half expecting someone to post this in response to my writing. 
It’s so easy to take you’re eye off the ball and fall into a slump (I’m watching baseball right now.). 
Thanks for the correction. Lord knows I’ve proselytized about this myself before.

@bdp24 : Well said. Spot on! But…. It is what it is.

@rvpiano : I am not surprised with your findings. From my (failed) experience with vinyl a few years back, I realized pretty quick I had to spend a lot more money on my vinyl gig to match the performance of my digital rig. Money I don’t possess. So I abandoned my vinyl project completely. Now I only have a digital system, that’s where I focused. And I don’t regret it one bit. Now… if one is “digital is just zeroes and ones” type, then analog will most certainly sound better than the lowly digital “system” put together based on that concept 

@abnerjack , I have a Sota Cosmos Vacuum and I use a Schroder CB tonearm which fits and works perfectly. I am extremely happy with the combination. With the right program source (LP), the turntable, with an MSL Platinum Signature installed, will outperform any digital source I have used in the system. This is extremely impressive. The issue with LPs is that they are extremely variable, performance ranging from insanely good to awful. Digital sources are more consistent. Digital also costs much less. Analog is much more fun. 

What’s so damned maddening about this hobby is the inevitable marriage of music and sound which becomes so intrinsically entwined that we lose track of the beauty of the music itself. As bdp24 so knowingly prodded: “Remember when you loved music you heard, long before you became obsessed with sound quality?”

That’s what we must never forget.