I was also at that event but came away with a different conclusion. I'm all about LPs, but the digital playback was pretty amazing - even the non hi-rez. granted, all the gear was cost-no-object, but both the Ayre and Linn digital gear (the kind that you run off a hard drive) were orders of magnitude better than any digital I've ever heard. normally I'd have dismissed as hype things like the Linn guy saying that their box completely trounced their megabuck CD12, but I recommend you check it out for yourself. (it's insanely expensive too of course)
being an LP guy, I have to say that I'm psyched about the 'next step': use your great-sounding TT to record hi-rez, transfer to a hard drive or DVD disc, then play back through one of these new boxes - you'll be hard-pressed to tell the difference between it and actual LP play, but you'll have all the convenience of hard-drive based music. (and you won't have to replace your kilobuck cartridge every two years either!)
and TVAD is so right. it was pretty sad as far as the actual music they had to use to demo this stuff - pretty much all downloads or specialty stuff (e.g. Linn recordings) you'd never really want to listen to. but if you have a killer LP collection and covet the convenience of digital, it's here.
being an LP guy, I have to say that I'm psyched about the 'next step': use your great-sounding TT to record hi-rez, transfer to a hard drive or DVD disc, then play back through one of these new boxes - you'll be hard-pressed to tell the difference between it and actual LP play, but you'll have all the convenience of hard-drive based music. (and you won't have to replace your kilobuck cartridge every two years either!)
and TVAD is so right. it was pretty sad as far as the actual music they had to use to demo this stuff - pretty much all downloads or specialty stuff (e.g. Linn recordings) you'd never really want to listen to. but if you have a killer LP collection and covet the convenience of digital, it's here.