Analog vs PC

>>I recently purchased a music streamer 11 for $149.00, and the improvement in sound is unbelievable.
Orpheus10 (Threads | Answers | This Thread)
11-24-10<<

Improvement from what?

I have musicstreamer II+ and it quite good and worth every penny that being said it still does not hold a candle to my cheap turntable which is worth about $1,000 including arm and cartridge. If you add the costs of a dedicated PC or Mac you have more than the $1000 turntable. My big turntable retails at $15,000 including tonearm and cartridge, and my turntable blew the socks of a $60,000 Burmester CD player that a manufacturers rep brought to the audio store where I used to work. He was shocked and embarrassed. Digital will never be analog but may get very close but I think we are still along away.

When I bought the Music Streamer, I simply wanted to eliminate a slight hum that was more apparent at high volume levels; what I got was much more.

A "jet black background" was the first thing that cought my attention. This was followed by a larger soundstage with greater transparency; vocalists were floating in air, completely separated from the instruments which remained in stationary positions on my new 3D soundstage

While the streamer cost $149. I will give you an equivalent in "analog". We begin with a Rega Planar 3 and a Grado platinum cartridge. In order to get the same improvement, we would have to add: 1 motor, $175, rewire kit, $250, tone arm heavyweight, $110., acrylic audio platter, $120., Groove Platter, $220., Cartridge upgrade to Grado Master Reference, $1000. This total comes to $1875. and it does not include labor for motor, or tonearm wire installation. Nor does this include an expensive "phono preamp" because the Grado cartridge does not require one.

This is the cheapest you can get such a high quality of "analog" sound and it just equals the improvements made by the streamer.

I believe we should not be comparing analog and PC Audio for a few reasons especially when it comes to cost. I am very excited in upgrading my PC Audio since I have had drastic improvements comparing it to my reference Transport / DAC system. It can easily cost $5000 to retip an older cartridge and obtain a 5% improvement compared to your existing reference cartridge that retails for $5000 to begin with. (we won’t get into the Analog VS PC Audio since my analog reference rig I place them in a different pedestal all together)
My Logitech Touch was a tremendous jump in performance within the digital realm for a $350 purchase connected to a $4k DAC and it still would not be comparable to a $500 Analog rig that is properly calibrated. That being said the cost difference with Analog and PC Audio is primarily associated with a meticulously specialized hand crafted item compared to one that is from a factory line production.

Why is Analog vs Digital such an ongoing debate? It's a stupid agruement IMO.

Like everything else, analog stuff ranges from garbage to nearly perfect. So does digital. Digital doesn't do everything analog does, and analog doesn't do everything digital does.

Why debate the crap out of it when we can have both? In my previous place I had both in the same system. When I was in an analog mood, I spun some vinyl. When I wasn't, I fired up the CDP or the music server.

My new place makes having a TT and all my vinyl out pretty much impossible. It sucks, but what can I do? I miss the TT, but I'm not losing any sleep over it. When either I buy a house or can reconfigure things, the TT will be back.

I believe Orepheus10 was trying to make a point that Analog cost alot more to work with compared to PC digital which I think we all do agree with that. I do like my PC Digital very much and I am squeezing everything out from my Logitech Touch lately with better chords and Power supplies and this coming cold Canadian winter, I will be staying warm at home transferring much of my music into this format and probably playing less of my TT except with selected older recordings.

Rapogee, that is the exact point I was making. When vinyl LP's are played back from the PC, are they considered "analog" or "digital"?