Would I be wasting my money to get a turntable?


I am thinking about getting a turntable but I have a Class D amplifier (Nad M33) which digitizes all the analog inputs. If the amplifier is just digitizing the source is there going to be any difference between the vinyl and just listening to lossless digital streaming sources? Is there any benefit to me, given my current amplifier with has no analog pass through capability, to adding a turntable to my system?

fritzenheimer

Digitizing itself isn’t going to kill the vinyl sound; I’ve had quite good results with Meridian 808i DAC / preamp units that digitize all analog inputs input and apply DAC / filtering on output - even with very high end vinyl gear. It can be suprisingly transparent. The main thing is that if you're used to a tube preamp, you won't get its added warmth and fullness from any digital preamps (as line stages they are a bit clean and dry) - though you COULD pipe the digital preamp into an input of a tube preamp...

That said, I also had the NAD M12 digital preamp and did not like its sound, at all. The M22 amp was fine, but the M12 did not make the cut here - I think even their older M51 DAC might have been better.

My amp gives me the option of converting the signal to digital or keep it analog. Digital conversion sounds better.

One class D is not digital in anyway,

Two his amp has room correction software so if he is using it yes its digitizing all inputs regardless.

Three if you dont' have records already i would pass on them its expemcive to do well, takes up considerable room, takes a long time to accumulate records, new records are expencive. If your a collector type maybe records are for you. 

Would I be wasting my money to get a turntable?

if you hook it up, turn it on, put albums on the platter, drop the needle and it produces sound, no, no you won’t be wasting money. Just don’t skip any of the above...

@glennewdick 

One class D is not digital in anyway

What do you call the conversion of an analogue signal to a PWM/PDM or ΔΣ modulation and its subsequent filtering to recover an amplified analogue signal? Because if that’s not digital, then CD is not digital and streaming is not digital either. However, that’s exactly what happens in a class-D amp, at some point. The filtering is at the very end, but the signal conversion can happen at the amp input or just before the final (current) amplification stage.