Doug:
Thanks for your thoughtful and well reasoned response. I think you are right on the mark. I feel that while the Scout may be a good table at it's price point it simply cannot compete with a top shelf digital player like the Esoteric, no matter how it is situated. I do think that the responses here suggest a real reluctance on the part of the audiophile community to recognize the gains that have been made in digital playback. It seems most people focused their comments on what must be wrong with my LP setup--otherwise, how could it possibly be bested by a CD player? Again, I've been drinking that Kool Aid for a long while myself. When I got my Naim CDX2 it was an eye opener. In some respects it surpassed my Scout in performance, though overall I'd rate them equally capable components. The Esoteric has moved things to a whole other level, to the point where I am not convinced that any upgrade to the Scout will allow it to compete. This is why I started this thread--to get some opinions on another analogue setup that will work in my situation and will provide performance at (or above) the level of my digital front end. Doug--you have indicated that none of the tables I mentioned will do this--do you have any others in mind that will? Once I upgrade the table I can look at changes to my preamp and phonostage that will allow me to take full advantage of my vinyl rig.
Thanks for your thoughtful and well reasoned response. I think you are right on the mark. I feel that while the Scout may be a good table at it's price point it simply cannot compete with a top shelf digital player like the Esoteric, no matter how it is situated. I do think that the responses here suggest a real reluctance on the part of the audiophile community to recognize the gains that have been made in digital playback. It seems most people focused their comments on what must be wrong with my LP setup--otherwise, how could it possibly be bested by a CD player? Again, I've been drinking that Kool Aid for a long while myself. When I got my Naim CDX2 it was an eye opener. In some respects it surpassed my Scout in performance, though overall I'd rate them equally capable components. The Esoteric has moved things to a whole other level, to the point where I am not convinced that any upgrade to the Scout will allow it to compete. This is why I started this thread--to get some opinions on another analogue setup that will work in my situation and will provide performance at (or above) the level of my digital front end. Doug--you have indicated that none of the tables I mentioned will do this--do you have any others in mind that will? Once I upgrade the table I can look at changes to my preamp and phonostage that will allow me to take full advantage of my vinyl rig.