You asked for general observations. Well here's mine. it doesn't matter. Analog Turn Table to either solid state or tube phono stage (depends on which sounds better and this totally depends on the design/construction of the phono stage), to either solid state or tubed pre-amp. Again, depends on which sounds better to me, which has absolutely nothing to do with solid state or tube, but ultimate sound. Then on to tube or solid state power amps. Again, same thoughts. As compared to Digital source CD transport to DAC then to pre-amp to power amp. I have found that many times for me it depends on how the music was first recorded. If it was recorded analog to disc, I found a turn table set up sounds much better than if it was recorded analog then mastered to digital and played through a CD player/transport/DAC system The analog signal was cut up and converted to digital, thereby, some information will ultimately be missing because it is sampled to digital. There is no way to get around this fact. However, you can minimize the losses if the sample rate is really high. But, there will still be losses and therefore, the analog system will be better. Now take a recording that is straight to digital. Take that digital recording and remaster it from the digital tape to analog and play it on both the digital system and also on the analog system. I have found that they both are too close to call. The proble with having an all analog system is that many times you simply can't find all the music. Especially the new music. Yes, you can find new music in analog format (album), but not always. So, having both analog and digital equipment is best. But remember, when comparing analog and digital systems, try to listen/compare apples to apples. Analog recording on album to the digital master from the analog tapes on CD. Same recording. or Digital master converted to analog and listen to both the digital cd and the analog version converted from digital. Hope this helps.
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