analog vs. digital better ? or just different


ive recently been able to bring my analog set up to the level [at least dollar wise] to my digital rig. ill leave brand names out of it but my cd player's worth about 3000.00 and my table cartridge and preamp, about the same.ive listened carefully and love the way the turntable sounds, perhaps not the best there is, but certainly a taste. then i put in a cd, awsome sound very detailed. both seem to depend on the recording, my newer and remastered cd's , very impressive. on the album side age doesnt seem to matter much, some just sound much better than others. so i guess my question is, am i in the thick of it, or just at the edge analog wise, because i woudnt say my turntable sounds better, just different. your opinion?
jrw40
just get the music that you really like, now that you have the choice of either format. one box doesn't HAVE to sound better than the other. one guy i know was selling used vinyl for $3-$5 a record. the sleeves weren't all perfect, but i picked up some awesome pieces. cd's for the last 5-10 years have just gotten better and better. so just have fun. if you become terminally disatified with "adequate" record players, and you're well off, you can get a $10k+ turntable and have even more fun. my preference is to match the latest and best engineered redbook cd's to the lastest and best cd players, which to my ears just seem to get better and better.
Why not just talk Abortion or Politics, hell lets throw in a Gun debate for good measure!
Just kidding but these threads can get heated, it may have been so played out it doesnt generate the same energy as in past but pull a search, grab a beer and ebjoy the read..............err I mean rants :)
the only reason i even responded to this redundant subject is that i have the "same problem"- my turntable sounds great (a vpi aries) and my cd player sounds great, too (EMM lab).
i have some terrific records (some are ancient but they sound very authentic), and i have some wonderful cd's (a good example is trevor pinnock playing baroque Handel and Vivaldi on Archiv). do i have to/want to tout one over the other?
uh, NO. those of you with a Walker turntable or an SME-30 are very fortunate indeed. i wouldn't mind an Amazon Reference or similar turntable with a triplanar arm (or??) but i have no burning desire to get one, since Mr.Weisfeld did a good job with what i already have. put a gun to my head or water-board me and i will go ahead and upgrade, but otherwise, i'm "happy". is this an unpardonable sin? will i burn in hell along with all of the people who still listen to Fisher Receivers and AR-3a speakers? maybe, maybe not...
I've gone down the road of digital, listening to various digital rigs over the years and working on my own. I even went so far as to A/B digital clocks to quantify if I *could* hear a difference between 2 different digital clocks. At the time I had a Zanden 5000 mk3 for a dac and a 47 Labs Flatfish transport.

In the August issue of TAS (it's a dedicated digital audio issue) there is a review of the Benchmark DAC/pre, and the reviewer made the comment that most issues around digital audio have been resolved, and with current chipsets out today, digital audio actually sounds good now. I would have to agree, the lower end players/dacs do sound quite good.

But getting back to this thread, it does not take much in terms of $$$ to surpass a digital setup. I am just now getting into analog in a significant way. And from what I've learned so far, Plato and French_fries both have valid points above.

My system was expanding too much, I had too many 'boxes' of gear that was taking over my room, so I made a choice. For me, digital is quite boring, I like to tweak and I find vinyl playback to be far more enjoyable due to the physical nature of the media. I'm discovering that vinyl playback is a true art, especially when it comes to cartridges. Vinyl playback does not require big $$$ for good sound, in fact that is not the heritage of vinyl playback.

Sure you can spend a fortune on a complete vinyl playback system if you have the $$$, like most things in life. But you have to be very careful on where you put your $$$, there are products out there that really do not justify their asking prices (not all high end is like this, but a lot of it is).

So for me, I've found that vinyl playback offers more variety and challenges vs digital. In the end, I do my critical listening on my big rig with vinyl. Digital audio is more convenience for when I want background music.