Am I getting it all?

Islandmandan - You do raise an interesting point about vinyl--there does seem to be a wider range of sound among records than CDs. Funny that I don't recall that from record listening in the 80's. Thin, fat, muffled, bright...you never know. I don't doubt that my equipment is revealing more of the differences than 20+ years ago, but still, that's been a surprise to me as I get back into vinyl (and a sometimes unpleasant one).

I listen mostly to classical music, and have done a fair bit of A-B comparing, and find that in the areas of delicacy, warmth, and detail, Lps win out most of the time, but not always. [I did one or two posts about A-B'ing Miles Davis and some other things last fall that may be worth a look.] In the area of deep and punchy bass, or glistening treble, it really depends on the particular Lp/CD (in my experience). (Although I do think that Lps generally resolve the highs in a more natural-sounding fashion...particularly in classical music.)

The other area that matters to me a lot is listening fatigue. I tend to suffer from listening fatigue with CD's, unless I'm pretty careful what I choose. And that's with several of the more musical CD players out there. I almost never get fatigue listening to Lps.

Several of us have said "Lps smoke CDs." For me, for long term listening, I'd still say that, but you make a fair point that it's not always true, and it may make a difference depending on your listening tastes. FWIW.

Eweedhome, I have found both vinyl and digital recordings that I just can't get through. Most of the time, though, I am able to enjoy all my listening sessions equally. My digital gear has greatly improved with the last round of upgrades Dave Schulte performed, making some discs that were once unbearable, now quite enjoyable. For instance, I have a cd of the Brandenburg Concertos that was unbearably bright. Now, it is remarkably vivid. If too bright, using the Time Lens, I can change dither to #2 setting, which is a little less bright, s'posed to be more analog-like they claim.
I too, do most of my listening in the classical vein. At this point, I tend to favor whichever format I'm listening to at the time, since neither one seems to be a disappointment. LP's, though, seem to go from listenable to just outstanding, with a different quality about them that is hard to define, but none-the-less is there.

Thanks for the interest, enjoy,
Dan

Islandmandan,

I agree with what Tomcy6 said 100%, my system is nowhere near yours either but I still feel that my Rega Apollo at under $1,000 blows away the sound of my MMF 7/Eroica Cartridge/Ray Samuels XR-2 phono preamp that costs twice the price! I have audiophile grade LP's and though they do sound good, the dynamic range, soundstage width, imaging and clarity is far superior when I listen to good CD's through the Rega.

Hey Dan,if your budget can stand it. I noticed a lot of people here say get an active tube pre. If you got one here on a'gon and tryed it a couple of weeks and it didn't help you should be able to turn it around and get your money back or close to it. If it does make the difference you need then you can try getting rid of your current inactive.

Particularly on classical, you really have to consider the label and the era. Early RCAs are great, Bis, Lyrita and a few others are uniformly great sounding. Later RCAs generally suck. Columbia is all over the board in quality, but usually has good artists. Sheffield, Crystal Clear and some other sudiophile labels have consistantly good sound quality but very mixed artistic values.

Anyway, over many years I've gotten to where my successful hit ratio is pretty high with vinyl.

Dave