I tend to agree with Pbb in the sense that to get good digital playback is cheaper than to get good analogue playback. The 4-1 ratio is bit much, I tend to think its more like 2-1.
In order to have a fair comparison of costs, you have to start with a line stage, no phono built in. The phono stage is to analogue what a DAC is to digital.
Sure in terms of enjoyment, PRaT, musicality, cheaper analogue systems can get you that for less than digital, but digital advances in technology have made it far less expensive to get a fairly decent playback system. Where digital has an advantage, is in the quiet background and the detail retrieval.
For analogue to have both quiet and detail, requires : (a) stable, quiet TT/arm, (b) good cart AND (c) matching low-noise phono. While (a) and (b) are not a problem for most systems, (c) can be quite costly.
For digital, I've always held the belief that separates will inevitably trounce integrated CDPs, and good separates (those that get the PRaT right) are not cheap. The two areas that digital playback fails miserably are in (a) dynamics, and (b) noise - RFI/EMI(!). If you think digital is quiet, think again. The "quiet background" of digital actually has hidden noise which mask detail and hinders dynamics. The solution is in clean power. I've found that by using a particular powercord, you can get back the dynamics and natural, fluid presentation of analogue.
On the analogue front, I've recently acquired a new arm, which again makes analogue far superior to digital. Details to follow...
