arguments against starting a vinyl collection?


Hi,

I have a pretty elaborate setup for cd playback. I use the emmlabs cdsd transport and emmlabs dcc2se dac with the dartzeel amplifier and the wonderful evolution acoustic mm2 speakers with powered woofers.

I own roughly 2600 cds and about 175 sacds.

The vinyl crowd still swears of course that great digital playback cannot equal vinyl so have been somewhat tempted to dip my toes into analog and get a turntable and phono preamp. Here is what is holding me back!

Please note that I would not get vinyl to find obscure vinyl only vintage or otherwise recordings.

It would be mostly targeted at recordings that sound better on vinyl than cd.

Here is the arguments against:

1. hard to find a turntable and phono preamp that is class A and thus as good as my emmlabs cd equipment without spending serious bucks?

2. Even if I could find a reasonably priced class A turntable, the best sound requires more skill than a newbie like I would have? In other words, the better turntables are harder to setup and use?

3. A lot of heavy weight albums are double albums so you need to switch sides three times?

4. You need to clean the vinyl before every listen?

5. If you listen 15 times to a particular vinyl album you will likely begin to hear some deteoriation?

6. Even with a good setup, you will probably still hear pops and hiss on many vinyl albums even some well mastered ones?

7. I will not hear for modern recordings a big difference between vinyl and cds given that my emmlabs equipment is so good and I cannot afford a $10,000 phono preamp and a $25,000 turntable/cartridge....

thanks

Michael
128x128karmapolice

Showing 1 response by azjake

My two cents worth...
Based on your vast collection of cd's and sacd's, if you REALLY listen to all your collection from a to z starting tomorrow, there's a good chance you'll be dead or at least so old as to barely hear ANYTHING long before you play your "new" medium!

My suggestion? Scrap your present digital set-up and get a new digital front end for about half of what you spent, then take the monies from your sale and invest in analog! Table, arm and cartridge of surprising quality can be had for this sum and you will have plenty left over for lp's!
a. your cd quality will still be 80 to 90% of your emm labs gear and
b. you will hear the truth and musicality that ONLY a MUSIC, not storage keyed medium can deliver...
BE BOLD!