Turntable or go into SACD, Simon Yorke vs EMM Lab

For now, if I were you I would stand pat -- just buy more records and CDs. I am one of those who went from an SACD player (Sony SCD-1) back to a good CD player (Naim CDS3). The top CD players sound quite good and I have not found an SACD player that did a really good job with CDs. I am also quite disappointed with the limited availability of music worth buying in SACD. On top of all of this, it is not at all clear which, if any of the two currently competing "high definition" formats will gain widespread acceptance.

I am not sure you would get a big boost from going from your current table to the Yorke. It will be a gamble since there is no practical way to audition tables fairly, short of taking the table home and mounting your arm on it.

What improvements are you looking for in your digital or analogue sources? I note that you consider CDs on the Audio Aero Capitole II merely OK. I like your CD player (great clarity and utterly free of grain), but I would expect it to sound quite different from your vinyl setup (not as rich and warm and less pronounced in midbass region). You could try cheap tweaking of the player. I know someone who bypassed the cone feet of the player to get more weight into the midbass.

Good luck, it sounds line you already have a very nice system.

I suggest you upgrade your Audio Aero for a Meitner DCC2...

My synopsis of you situation is as follows:

1. vinyl - quite happy
2. CD - only OK
3. SACD - impressed with what you heard on Meitner.
4. Software - mainly vinyl.

Before going to the Meitner, I auditioned Audio Aero, Wadia 861SE, Electocompaniet and many other,but none of them came close to the magic that Meitner achieves on regular CD !!!

Following many audio society sessions, the Meitner remains well ahead of the pack on both CD & SACD...and always amazes members on CD...

I bought the Meitner solely on how much it elevated plain old red book CD...for me SACD was the bonus !!

Beleive me pure DCS recordings ie. microphone straight to the DSD recorder rival the finest golden era living voice etc. recordings from the Early 60's.

Most users dont realize that the Meitner converts Red book CD to DSD and in the process removes many of the negative artifacts introduced by the anti-aliasing filters(aka Brick wall filters) used to make CD's.

Instead of buying old & expensive old vinyl, I now achieve tremendous satisfaction from more recent CD re-issues of the early 60's living voice recordings and EMI classis re-mastered using EMI's art process.

Another huge bonus of the DCC2 is that it allows you to eliminate a pre-amp & un-necessary interconnects...remember less is more in the analog domain.

Personally I cashed out a BAT D5se, BAT 51SE and valhalla interconnects and put SACD in my system and money in my pocket!!

If you are nervous of spending 7k on the Proprietatry Meitner SACD transport, I suggest you buy an in-expensive SACD player and feed it to the DCC2 as an auxiliary input.

Consensus in our audio society is that a relatively small investment in the inherently higher resolution SACD format will easily surpass megabuck red book players.

Finally, as regards software, I suggest you buy Hybrid SACD's only.

I hope this helps.

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Take a look at Teres Audio turntables (teresaudio.com)and specifically at the model 340.
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I have a new 340-2 (two armboards) and the sound is stunning. The build quality and the sonics are wonderful and probably the best value in TT's.
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The sound of a good TT set up will far surpass any CD or SACD set up.
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Feel free to email me.
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Cello,

I completely agree that a good TT set-up will surpass any CD, this is primarily due to the brick wall anti-aliasing filters that all PCM (including durrent DVD-a) recordings must go thru.

However, I cannot agree with you on DSD and here is why..PURE DCS recordings ..emphasis on PURE ie. straight from microphone to recorder (and not convnered to PCM for editing / mixing) are our modern day equivalent of the vinyl Direct to Disc recordings...no mixing desks ..no anti-aliasing filters...basically the DSD processor looks at the audio signal 2.? something million times a second and determines dit the amplitude increase/decrease of stay the same.

Knowing the inherent problems with all Anti-alising filters in PCM.. a bunch of purest engineers set out on the absolute best way to archive the deteriotaing Master tapes of the last centuary and this was an ingenious solution!!

The situation we have now is most of the treasures captured in analog format over the last centuary are now archived in DSD...the best copy you will ever get of these treasures is a pure DSD copy.

Of course the downside of DSD from the Professionals point of view is you cant manipulte it in the DSD domain and most studios manipulate music in PCM... So basically PCM recordings (CD / DVD-a) are the equivalent of your typical mixed down recordings with the typical artifacts of the multiple layers of processing the signal had to go thru.

So if your prioroties are 'documentary style' recordings .. for classical or small ensambles PURE DSD is you best bet and if at some stage you want to hear the modern day eqivalent of a vinyl direct ot disc then again PURE DSD is your best bet.

If you have read my insight on this topic you will understand that the wonders of the straight direct to disc vinyl recordings we cherished ( and were only available in limited numbers) are now available to everyone in the the form of PURE DSD.

Before you knock this insight go hear a well made PURE DSD thru a Meitner and you will beleive!!!

My suggestion to the original question stands...

Upgrade you CD library by getting a Meitner DCC2...and ultimatly upgrade to the Propietary link (which will get the best out of both CD and DSD)when you are comfortable with the fact that PURE DSD recordings are in fact modern day equivalents to the direct of disk LP.

Feel free to contact me directly...

my id is 'ceol'..gaelic for music !!

Just relax and avoid the SACD hype. The rush to want to get on the wagon is not rational. Your TT will sound better. In fact, DVD-A sounds better.

Redbook is very good (SACD is marginally better, so what?), so why get into it. Wait 5 years or so. I'm guessing it will probably be over a decade before we really see what and if a new format is going to emerge. And there is no guarantee that a new format won't take the place of SACD. SACD has been out 4-5 years and look how slow it is moving.