Convert Me


I have gone back and forth on the re-entry to analog issue. I like convenience, I want to spend my time listening rather than futzing, I'd rather have fewer pieces of gear than more. But, I love great sound and I'm interested in experimenting, and fairly often I see a review of new LP that makes me think, "I'd like to try that."

So, if I were to take the plunge and give it go, I'd like people's recommendations on what to get. Cost is an issue, but not a big issue - let's say $5k budget, I'd rather not spend that much if I didn't need to, I'd spend more if it was essential. My goal would be to get an analog rig that, when I added up all the additional overhead, would make me see the clear benefits over CD.

Listening preferences are Rock/pop with healthy doses of blues and jazz. I don't listen to classical. Current equipment is:

Sony DVD-S7700 as a transport

Lexicon MC-12 preamp

Krell KAV-250a amplifier

Dynaudio Contour 3.0's.

What do you recommend? Is there a path given the variables I describe that has a good chance for me to re-adopt the LP as a medium for my music collection?

Please, no digression into the overall worthiness or sacredness of LP's - there's plenty of threads with everybody's viewpoints on that. This is an avenue I've been going back and forth in my mind for the past couple years, and I'd value anybody's viewpoint on the likelihood of success before I start, as well as the most likely path to success if I start. Thanks, Kirk

kthomas

Showing 2 responses by kthomas

Thanks for all the excellent advice - exactly what I was looking for. The Lexicon does have true analog bypass and while I'm sure that the suggestions of buying a separate analog pre-amp has a great deal of merit, I probably would at least start with the analog bypass through the Lexicon.

If that's the case, I assume I need to buy: the TT, an arm, a cartridge, a phono stage, and a cable. Is that the full set to get up and going in the configuration I describe? Obviously there are other accessories, but I think that's the full set of what I need to play the first record.

Thanks again for all the good advice -Kirk

I use the Lexicon MC-12 DACs fed by the 7700. One of my goals is to have the best sound I can get while keeping the system to as small a number of boxes (simple) as possible. -Kirk