2. analog
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When does analog compete with digital?

With vinyl becoming all the rage, many believe (perhaps mistakenly) that a budget of $1K will allow them to bring their analog front end up to par with their digital. I would like a reasoned assessment of this issue.

How much time, money, and expertise do you think is necessary before one can seriously claim that their analog front end can compete with their digital? What characteristics, if any, are simply incommensurable between these two mediums? Let's use my system as an example.

Personally, I tried to build an analog front-end that focused on texture/warmth (as opposed to dynamics), but I still feel as though something is missing. Trouble is, I can't quite put my finger on it. I'd be grateful for comments/suggestions (system in sig)
jferreir
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,590 posts
 
Rumor has it Nasa developed a gimble mounted turntable for the Apollo astronauts back in the day when vinyl ruled that could also operate in zero gravity.

Your taxpayer dollars at work....

Then again, other rumors have it that the whole Apollo deal was staged.

Oh well....
drewmb1's avatar
drewmb1
67 posts
 
There is no point in me recreating the wheel or in this instance the gimbled platform. I'll check with NASA and see if they can help...........
macdadtexas
1,794 posts
 
Luckily my daughters' dance school is at Hwy 3 and Nasa Rd One, about half a mile from the entrance to Nasa's main facility. I am sure at least a few of the girls at the school have parents who are scientists at Nasa. I will offer to drop my girls off tonight, and put a note up on the bulletin board inquiring about the gimbled turntable.

Maybe someone can pull it out of the archives. If they do, let's set up a listening test. Probably best to do it in late October when it cools down here.
cajunpepe
255 posts
 
My Bimmer does 0-60 in 4.8 seconds. This will obviously cause variations in platter speed, so please address this technical point with NASA in the new design.
t_bone
1,182 posts
 
I think a gyro is a sine qua non for the gimbal platform, and the trick would be having the platform mounted so that the gimbaled supports to that platform were not rigid (I expect something like a linear bearing might work here, with the gyro keeping the TT in one place). One could potentially mount a Sony PS-F9 on it to "save space." It has the linear arm, but I expect the single biggest issue would be vibration damping, so one would have to have something like a mini vibraplane as the platform base (requiring a much bigger gyro).
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