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Need to re-discover analog - please help

Like the short-sighted, lazy, modern moron that I am, I threw away all my LPs and turntable when I got hooked on my first decent CDP, a Kinergetics Platinum KD-40, 15 years ago. Because it was easier to take care of CDs. Now, my mother who was a musician, and had a classical collection of about 200 really absolutely great recordings, collected from the 1940s til the 80s, has left me her collection. They just have to be preserved, played and savored. I need an analog set-up that will a) do them justice and b) not sound noticeably "worse" compared to the digital set-up I am now used to. My analog set-up that I discarded (I know, I know.........please dont rub it in, what's done is done.) was a Denon 103D and Sony PS-800 linear tracking TT and also a Kenwood marble platter with SME tone-arm and also Denon 103 D cartridge and circa 1980 PS Audio MC phono stage.
The present system, to which must now obligatorily be added a turntable: EMM DCC2/CDSD; Atma-Sphere Line-stage MP-1 MkII, Atma-Sphere MA 2.2 modified (27 tubes each); Kharma 3.2; Indra Stealth i/cs; PAD Dominus i/cs and S/Cs (Rev C & B).

I tried MM cartridges before - Dynavector,Ortofon,Shure V15 iv - but only liked the MC Denon 103D - so would prefer that MC "sound".

I have not kept up with the analog market, nor new equipment, and am totally ignorant about the components but would greatly appreciate input as to what TT, tone-arm, cartridge and phono preamp to get that would neither bankrupt me nor do the wonderful collection my mother left me a disservice, nor my ear that is now spoiled by the pretty "good" digital, ancillary set-up I have. Nor, obviously, sound "inferior" to the CDs:)

What sort of a budget am I looking at to keep the system within the overall quality of the associated equipment that I have, without going crazy, since i will still mostly be listening to CDs (unless i get totally hooked and go bonkers..........)?

I listen to classical 90% of the time and 95% of her collection is classical.

As always, I appreciate your advice.
springbok10
lugnut
1,190 posts
 
I have experience with both the Illustrious and the 901 on another table. The 901 is sensitive to temperatures. I think you'll find that it requires more VTF in the winter than in the summer. If the table rotates correctly and is quiet at the bearing then you will have something to challenge the Meitner front end right out of the box. One of the most knowledgable members here regarding the 901 is Doug Deacon. Don't hesitate to contact him for his thoughts on the 901. I'm not anal enough to bother with VTA differences between records but I can tell you that correct VTA will reap huge rewards with the 901. You'll know it when it's right.
springbok10 OP
711 posts
 
It is obvious why, when I went to Cutler's record/CD shop in New Haven yesterday, they had maybe a few (if that) hundred old LPs, most of them of average-poor quality, and many, many thousands of CDs - and no new classical LP pressings............because people dont want to change the VTA for each season, each LP and clean the software 100 different ways before each playing! I think it takes a very punctilious, organized, super-anal personality to get the most out of vinyl, whereas most music lovers are just ready to hit the load and play buttons and forget about the hardware. True? Yes, which is why I threw away all my LPs 14 years ago -But I have committed a few thousand $S and a lot of research, and hours of all your valued time on A'gon for advice- so I am now committed and ready to join the club, but with trepidation and a sense of realism that I am entering the lion's den. Sonic bliss of the digital kind is so easy - with vinyl you have to work really hard for the same auditory kicks per unit dollar/hour/joule expended. Almost like riding through lush countryside on a bike or a motor-bike. Who would choose the bike when the gradient is 20 or 30 degrees? A masochist, it seems. Hey, that's what makes life fun. Choosing the tough ride because the rewards are greater, in the final analysis. We'll see. Soon. Hey, the good part is that if the vinyl re-birth blows me clean through my living room window, I can sell the EMM gear and upgrade to an SME 30 and bring the APL Denon 3910 home for CDs and live happily ever after..........
nsgarch's avatar
nsgarch
2,524 posts
 
Spring -- You needn't worry about becoming anal retentive/compulsive or having to struggle getting something ready to play. Allow me to adjust your attitude slightly:

When holding a record, it's a lot different internal feeling than holding a CD.

With a record, you feel you're touching a fragile, living thing, real music right there in your hands -- I mean you can actually see the loud and soft passages in the grooves, count the cuts, see how long they take -- all without reading anything! Whereas one CD looks pretty much like any other (except for the amount of blank space at the outside edge,) CD's don't hold real music -- just a set of blueprints for making sounds, but they no more contain music than a cookbook contains real food.

You can care about a record in a way you can't about a CD. You might find an LP that's been long neglectied, and just needs a little detergent and Last preservative to clean it up. Then a good turntable to unlock all the wonderful sound you can see inscribed on its black surface -- there's a certain excitement/anticipation you feel just as the diamond hits the lead-in groove -- Is it OK? What'll it sound like? Is it a good recording? etc. etc. I find that records are always begging to be played, while CD's seem to say "whatever".....but maybe that's just me.

Records engender respect/affection in a way CD's don't. Maybe it's that they're vulnerable or hard to replace/duplicate. I never had anyone offer to "burn" me an acetate copy! I think you're about to fall in love, and you just don't know it yet!

Oh, and a great thing about turntables: they don't have "play" buttons, and even better, they don't have "skip" buttons. No tampering with the playlist!
springbok10 OP
711 posts
 
Nsgarch, Unfortunately, your reasoning resonates in me in ways almost mystical, but very persuasive - to the soul of an adherent to an old, tested and anchronistic theme - that of tradition and anti-modernity, that shuns convenience for the sake of purity, honesty and realism, despite the nuisance, work and effort involved. If it's better, then do it. If it makes the result a more soulfull and fulfilling experience, then it's right. It resonates because I have the same feeling for film/darkroom vs digital discs/computer that you have for CDs/LPs - I have some beautiful images on film, transferred into black and white silver halide prints with smelly, disgusting chemicals, sodden paper, hours of imersion in a tiny dark-room with carcinogens abounding, but hang defiantly and translucently, redolent of richness, majesty and realism, on walls in large oak frames, whereas their digital cousins sit anemically, thin, poor, 2-dimensional relatives, devoid of character, soul or life, in file upon file on a hard-drive of a computer, to stir nobody's soul...........but I still persist with digital, hpoing that, for the price of convenience I can conquer the medium. But haven't. Nowhere near. Wont happpen. But that's me creating. Music, I'm not creating. Just reproducing. Is it the same? Is the result similar? Will I hear the difference if you take away all the ritual, philosophy and tradition? That, Nsgarch, is my question, which you cant, and only I, will be able to answer. I asked the same question of myself when I sold my Leicas, 4 X 5 view cameras and 6 X 9, 6 X 6, 6 X 7 medium formats to use a single digital camera to take all their places for the sake of convenience. It failed. Will vinyl go the same route or is it indeed the holy grail?
I'll let you know................
nsgarch's avatar
nsgarch
2,524 posts
 
Spring -- Well, I don't know about vinyl being the Holy Grail, I guess I just enjoy the chewing and tasting (the Ritual) of vinyl, rather than the "Wolfing It Down" of digital. And I do enjoy the sound -- which has a kind of delicacy or refinement (even on Rock music) that the best reproduced digital never seems to achieve.

Your comments on photography are not lost on me. In fact, when I was an architecture student at MIT in the 60's, I was a teaching assistant to Minor White in the Creative Photography Dept. where I was groomed to teach the Zone System. Once I owned everything in the Hassleblad catalog. And now I own a single Nikon digital. Sigh!!

I have to go now, Fatparrot is coming by to spin some records.

Neil

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