Vinyl, should I take the plunge?

If you are buying used vinyl you will absolutely positively need a wet record cleaning device (VPI, Nitty Gritty) that has a vacuum pickup tube...the only civilized way to clean. No doubt about it, cleaning and vinyl prep is a pain in the ass! And don't forget that you will be jumping up every 20 minutes or so, to flip sides, clean the second side with a carbon fiber brush, compressed air, zero-stat, and check the stylus for dust. And still, you will never, EVER, get the silent black background that digital will give you. However, if you can put up with the inconvenience of vinyl, the MUCH lower S/N ratio and channel separation vs. redbook CD, then you will be rewarded with a much more "musical" presentation than is possible with CD's.

Hi-rez digital audio can be considered as the "Not Ready For Prime Time Players"! As stated, the software is a crap-shoot, with some titles being nothing more than a remastering of a 16 bit digital redbook master tape! SACD is a very limited niche market, although I would image that classical listeners are in ecstasy now being able to listen to a complete performance generated in true hi-rez from an analog master, rather than 4 sides on vinyl. Multi-channel SACD is nothing more than a gimmick, bought by people who are audio fanatics demanding the latest technology and possessing copious amounts of disposable income, or the status conscience buying "braggin' rights". Universal players or DVD-A would appear to be the way to go, due to the flexibility of source material vs. SACD. Watch for "re-issue" hi-rez digital titles to start hitting the market in a year or two, correcting some of the crappy sounding titles (especially SACD) and as an additional marketing ploy.

Fatparrot...You may like vinyl for whatever reason, but the notion that signal-to-noise and separation is better than digital is flat out wrong. Very wrong.

There is no straightforward way to calculate signal to noise of vinyl, but a few minutes of listening makes it clear that the analog signal, whatever its virtues, is accompanied by noise. Some LPs more than others, but it is always there. Some people (like you) can "listen through" the noise. That is a talent I never perfected.

The standard LP mastering process blends stereo signals below about 150 Hz, to avoid inherent tracking problems with vertically modulated grooves. Also, many people find a rumble filter to be necessary, and the best of these blend (rather than attenuate) LF signals. Above this LF range, I suggest that you review the separation specs of phono pickups. 25-35 dB is about as good as it gets. Actually, this is not a big problem. After all, the sound from two loudspeakers is not well separated. For that you need headphones.

It's interesting that people who reject DVD-A and SACD say that there are no discs that are any good. How would you know? You were correct once, but good discs are coming fast now.

JJ, you better have some good reasons to go into vinyl--especially with your current rig. For vinyl to even start approaching digital in the noise department, the noise floor must be taken to *uncanny* low levels. This is neither easy--nor cheap--to do. Vinyl is a real pain to deal with. That's one of the reasons why I have a modded Technics 1200. I want a deck that will be user friendly and high performance at the same time.

There's got to be some real music that you want to listen to on the analog format. Although I have three times as many LPs vs CDs, it was the high prices of old salsa albums in eBay what made me plunge into digital big time. Why pay $20-$45 for used LPs that are readily available on CD? Ridiculous! I got a hold of a used belt drive transport and sent it to Dan Wright for modification. Should be back in a few weeks...

I have over 100 SACD's and they all sound great. I have used an SACD review site to help make my purchases and that has obviously helped me steer my way to the better sounding SACD's, but in no time at all, I have build a pretty good collection of great sounding SACD's and it is growing. I listen to SACD's for days in a row. When I switch to a CD, the air goes out of the presentation.
There is no way in the world I would go back to the clicks and pops of vinyl.
A vinyl LP sounds good the first time you take it out of the package, clean it,
and play it. After that, you are obsessively/compulsively fighting the battle of dust, scratches, and degradation. As Eldartford said, some people can listen
"through" LP noise, but I find that it kills my enjoyment. I also have theory that some people simply have an emotional attachment to the sound of vinyl.
It is the sound with which they grew up and have a lot of positive associations. Since vinyl-heads tend to be rather vociferous in the declarations of superiority, they sometimes talk others who didn't grow up with vinyl into a sort of "contact high." That's just a theory. Hopefully, it will be taken as such and others can respond. There needs to be *some* counterpoint to the vinyl-head attack on digital. So, there you have it.

Rsbeck sez: "Since vinyl-heads tend to be rather vociferous in the declarations of superiority..."

I will submit that such a notion is, without question, a two-sided coin.