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

dlevi67, "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?"  

yes analogue still. no ones and zeroes involved here so not digital.  

there is no digital (I.e. code) in a class D amp, period.  your confusing the differences here. Class D has been around since 1958 well before digital anything was a thing in Audio. I'd suggest you do a google search and read up on the differences, class D was just the next letter in the alphabet after class C. 

So, it has an ADC/DAC in it?

A lot of folks on line, even some learned ones thinks the ’D’ stands for digital and writes as if the amp is when as far as I can tell when delving a bit into it isn’t correct.

The sound quality you get is a result of the components you choose. If you choose poorly you can get vinyl that sounds harsh and trebly and digital that is warm and musical... although it is still easier to get the opposite as cheap components tend to favor the more forgiving vinyl. 

Since you can craft digital or vinyl to sound which every way you like, there is just no advantage to vinyl any more. If you have dollars that you can invest in analog... invest in getting better digital. 

I think it’s not so black-and-white whether class D is or is "not" digital. Sure if you’re getting into a semantics war, it doesn’t meet the criteria of digital quantization and conversion. But some of the elements / patterns are certainly there, and I think @dlevi67 is correct to point them out.

Anyways, in true Audiogon fashion, this sidebar isn’t even fully relevant to OP because the preamp stage of his M33 converts ALL analog inputs to digital (ADC), before it even hits the class D amp stage. Maybe it can directly convert that to the necessary PWM without an intervening DAC stage - that might mitigate the issue I had with the separate M12 + M22 combination's SQ?

I am  shocked by some of the misunderstanding about class D out there. 

Jerry