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 3 responses by czbbcl

So Genesis168 for 1500 bucks what would you recommend? I have been kinda looking at Linn Lp12's when they come up for sale.

Chuck
I am in the same boat as you and have decided not to pursue the vinyl thing. Most of all I like a quiet dark background and very good fast dynamic contrasts in my music. And my modded sony provides me with these characteristics in spades.

A friend of mine has a very nice vinyl set-up ($8000) and has tried to talk me into going down that road. I have listened to his plus a couple differenct higher end rigs at some specialty retailers and I have not been impressed. Maybe in my system it would be differenct but I did not hear what I was looking for to pursue it further; at least for now.

Admittedly some TT's are absolutely gorgeous and maybe someday down the road it might be fun to have to play with. But right now my life is too complicated and time too precious to have the hassles of dealing with a vinyl set-up.
Even though I have about 100 lps and have decided not to take the plunge into vinyl I can certainly appreciate the beauty and romance of it as well as the labor.

Some of the systems posted on this thread are absolutely beautiful and I applaud all of you who have found your sonic nirvana.