Parity

@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.

@thyname and @rvpiano: Audiogon member @slaw---whose opinions I greatly respect---having worked long and hard at optimizing his LP player and the system it feeds, decided he didn’t want to do the same for digital sources, so eschews CD’s/SACD’s/etc. altogether.

Though I understand and respect that decision and stance, in my case there are just too many albums I absolutely love---both Pop and Classical---that have been made available only on CD for me to not have a disc spinner. I don’t expect the two formats to sound the same, but then we all know sound quality amongst LP’s varies greatly too. There are plenty of CD’s that sound better than some LP’s, but even if they didn’t I need and listen to them because of the music they contain.

I’m a music lover first, an audiophile second. I don’t use my recordings to make my system sound good, I use my system to make my recordings sound good, or at least as good as they can. That applies equally to LP’s and CD’s/SACD’s. It is Steve’s position that a system optimized for one will inherently be less than optimum for the other. Comments and/or opinions on that position? Are the two formats so inherently different that each needs a playback system optimized for itself?

bdp24, Well said and mirrors my thoughts exactly. I also tend to agree with Steve's position, at least it reflects my feelings.

I put together a near SOTA system in the 80's (not because I was smart but because I could) and found that early digital was unlistenable however, unfortunately concurrently, LP's quality had degenerated to a point that I was not buying either new digital or analog (and didn't have the knowledge or intelligence to buy up used LP's becoming available). Then I got a good CDP and some good recordings (performances and recordings)  and I finally had access to lots of music that I had missed and the musical content of my digital collection quickly exceeded my LP collection (substantially) and the quality quickly challenged the analog system.

Ultimately I found that maintaining (and using) a vinyl recording system was too time consuming, fussy, and although often the results were far superior to my digital it was, for me, counter productive to use the analog stuff any longer. So I gave it away, everything, and went strictly to digital. And without the analog any longer I found that I was able to focus on, and improve, my digital system as well.

For those reasons I agree with Steve. I'm a happy camper now and I'm pretty much back where I started, trying to focus on the music. I still respect the 'audio' aspects but not so much.  :-)

Well, I had two directions I could go.  I could: 1. Abandon records altogether (as above,)  or 2. totally revamp my analog system.  I chose the latter. Although I have some second thoughts about the decision, I have come to the conclusion that they both make very pleasurable sounds.  And each has its own unique character.  And, as such, I can enjoy both.