How Much To Rival Good Digital Playback

While you can rival good digital playback for a very reasonable sum with analog, the lower priced analog systems may be a little higher in background noise than you may be used to hearing. Quieter analog systems may cost a bit more, and generally require a good moving coil cartridge, heavy platter of appropriate material, and a good phono stage with high overload margins.

I think you can get nice results for about $1k, especially with used turntables(assuming you have a phono preamp). But to get into the really quiet performance levels, you may need to go to $3k-$5k. And of course the records should be kept nice and clean for wear and quietness purposes.

I'm not going to make any equipment recommendations, since that can be very dependent on taste. But it can be done at those prices, and you can get even better if you want to spend more.

I would look at the expenditure in the same way as you look at purchasing a digital player. Get the best you can for the money, and if you spend the same amount as you did on your digital player, you should get better overall results, musically.

However, there are some people who have become so accustomed to dead quiet backgrounds from digital, that they have a hard time adjusting to the clicks and pops in analog systems. You'll have to determine whether this is acceptable to you, since there always will be some kinds of noise associated with it, even if small.

I respectfully submit that the road to analog heaven must first be paved with money. Again, the two schools of thought hold views that are diametrically opposed: the analog-or-bust camp will indicate that a $500.00 vinyl front end will surpass even the best digital. From very recent experience I can tell you that it does not work that way. Analog is way more expensive than digital to implement correctly. Does not mean you can't get great enjoyment out of vinyl records played on moderately priced equipment, this simply means that if you start out with the showdown view of the audio world, you may be unhappy with the general results. Although they share the same general purpose, one does not necessarily eclipse the other in all aspects. Keep an open mind, but to answer your question: look to spend five times the amount on analog hardware than on digital. If you have no vinyl collection or are not in line to inherit one or to find someone to sell you theirs or that of a recently departed loved one (heuh...mortician speak, I guess...), I would not start out on that quest which may turn out to be a tangent. If you have the soul of a collector and are wanting for a hobby that takes you out of the house, maybe buying used in flea markets and the like is for you.

I will agree with you on one thing, Pbb. If you do not currently have LP's, or only a few, it will cost you quite a bit to build a record collection. If one already has a ton-o-CD's this is another concern. OTOH, the cost of MOST vinyl will run you less per recording than CD.

Properly implemented, I cannot agree with your 5-1 theory with respect to cost (if one can even equate quality to cost in the first place). If you assemble a set of equipment that does not mesh well together (Analog or digital) the outcome will be crap no matter how much you spend.

Back to the 5-1 theory. I did this awhile back. I had a preamp that contained an MC phono stage. I bought a demo Nottingham Spacedeck with Spacearm and then added a Shelter 501MkII cartridge. Cost? About $2700 all told, shipping included (about $3,600 retail). I also formerly owned a Sony SCD-1 deck. Cost? $2700 used all told (about $5K retail). In my experience, the vinyl front end bested the digital front, and not by a small margin. More dynamic, more involving, much more enjoyable. I compared recordings of the same material and not one person felt the digital sounded better.

Granted, this is but one example and there may be others out there with dissimilar experiences one way or the other. I am only saying that, having spent the exact same amount of money, the analog front end sounded wholly superior. As such, my experience would summarily dismiss the 5-1 cost notion.

I have gone on to establish a much stronger analog front end recently and would gladly compare it to any digital system of equal or reasonably greater value.