Is a vinyl rig only worth it for oldies?

for me the music foundation belongs to the bass low bass and here the LP alternative can't even dream what the digital can do even the redbook is better than the LP compared to live music at 3-4 meters from the source.

Boy, the ability to play bass IMO/IME has always been ruled by LP. I have never seen any digital system do as well! I can't agree with this statement at all, it is so false it seems crafted to be inflammatory, but knowing you Raul, I doubt that is the case. Curious.

A straight-tracking arm solves the tracking issue you describe if its engineered correctly (I am not a fan of air bearings!). But still I would recommend spending time with an LP cutter- the tracking error of radial tonearms is almost a non-issue relative to the overall picture, as long as the radial arm is built right, and there are a few.

This all has to do with the source recording- knowing what that sounds like and then knowing what the resulting CD or LP sounds like! That is why I say the tracking distortion, so long as the arm/cartridge setup is otherwise working correctly, is not important. So I cannot agree that a digital media, at least in its many existing forms, is somehow better- they all impose an audible artifact where the analog does not.

Now understand that I listen to a lot of lathe cuts- it is from that perspective that I write this. They just don't make any noise! Yet you can cut a 50KHz carrier tone into one and modulate FM stereo into it... crazy!

I cannot over-emphasize this point, apparently. You just have to experience it.

Dear Atmasphere: About that bass subject I made it a lot of test and compared those tests against live music in real venue " sitting/staying " at 3-4 meters from the source.

Main difference between digital and LP seems to me that reside in the time decay of the bass notes/harmonics where IMHO excist some kind of " overhang " in the LP performance where the digital it is not only more profound but sharper/solid/fast, less " obtrusive " and more natural/real with better definition.

Way before I understand the overall bass subject and before may subwoofers came to my system its performance in that frquency range was very good and I like it ( my speakers can go down to 16hz almost flat. ), I like the " organic signature " that came from my system: the floor and glass in the windows shaked and I was " proudly " about till I learned that that " shaked " was charged with a lot a lot of distortions that were what in reality shaked my room ( when deep bass in the LP playback. ).
Then my task was and is to lower those bass distortions and when subs came to my system I really knew that that " shaked " was heavy charged of distortions. Of course through the years I made several things to lower whole system distortions but when you lower the bass ones the quality level performance in any audio system improves a lot by a wide margin.
Today and with SPLs around 105dbs my room does not shake but I can feel the deepest bass on the recording when that recording ask for. The differences when we achieve the right bass range are just stunning and IMHO the LP can't compete against digital, not a wide margin but IMHO digital has an advantage down there.

As you and I already posted both formats have its own trade-offs. I like it both.

For me the bass range is perhaps the most critical to attain SOTA performance in any audio system. IMHO as goos a system bass quality performance as good the system overall performance.
Everything is important through the music frequency range but bass along the other frequency extreme put the frame/setting where the whole music will shine.

My experiences through many years and many tests brought me to that opinion.

++++ " Now understand that I listen to a lot of lathe cuts- it is from that perspective that I write this. " ++++

Course I understand it and that's why our opinion's differences. As I told you I would like to have those experiences.

Regards and enjoy the music,
R.

Like Raul, I have carefully observed bass and most other parameters of sound at live events.

Based on that, I too have reached the conclusion that good digital, even CD redbook, has no problem doing realistic and accurate bass if implement well (always a big if).

Same true for vinyl but there are more challenges getting clean bass out of many records due to issues that are well documented with the format over the years (wow/flutter/rumble, manufacturing and other imperfections that only increase over time like warping over time, etc).

Most people will find it easier to get right with digital IMHO, not to say that it cannot be done very well in many cases as well with records. IT will just in general be harder and also probably a lot more expensive to address with vinyl. A lot will vary from record to record. Part of the expense will be finding a copy of a desired title on vinyl that is relatively free of any defects.

You should read Robert Harley's excelent article on this in the July/August issue of The Absolute Sound.

Like Harley, I agreee the mastering is typically much more important than the medium. I have about 2000 Jazz LP's, mostly from the 50's to 60's.

A great number of these are LP's that never got reissued or only got poorly mastered reissues as Harley describes. The record industry keeps reissuing the same couple hundred "Jazz Classics" in ever "better" reissues. Most of these are, actually, very good. But if you ever want to go much beyond Miles Davis' "Kind of Blue", and the other "jazz classics", vinyl is essential.

P.S. As to noise or pops and clicks on vinyl. I find it unacceptable. 85% of my LP's have no significant noise beyond MAYBE a few light clicks per side on the begining deadwax - and most are 50+ yrs old. The other 15% are either in remediation or on their way out. The way you do this is 1) insist on NM vinyl and send it back if it isn't 2) a very rigorous cleaning process (I clean mine on a Loricraft every time I play and they improve over time) 3) a very good TT - I have a Transrotor Fat Bob with ZYX Airy3 cart and Graham Phantom arm - the TT is the most important for noise. Of course you also have to realize that you can pay 100's to over a thousand dollars for a NM version of an earlier (forget original) edition of a Classic Blue Note while an excellent RVG remaster might be $25. That's why I also have a few thousand Jazz CD's.

Sorry, but there is no perfect answer here. Those who claim "Vinyl rules!" or "CD's are superior because vinyl = pops and clicks" are uninformed.

Raul,
I am absolutely astonished by your post on bass above and its importance to reproduction. Do you only listen to bass ?
Given that your room is not large, the analogue gear sits between your speakers, the miss-match of multiple drivers and amplifiers, I cannot see how your system can possibly deliver coherent musical timing. If it does it must be a complete fluke.