digital vs vinyl thoughts

Tmsorosk,

I see why you'd think that I tried to make my digital setup sound more analog, but it's not true. I simply bought the best sounding (to me) DAC I could afford. Same as when I bought my turntable and cartridge. I hate it when people say digital piece 'sounds analog,' much in the say way I hate it when people say a solid state piece 'sounds tubelike.'

Truth is, when people talk about digital sound, they're either refering to a bad component or a recording that's either bad or was mastered in the days when engineers had no clue what they were doing when first stepping in to digital.

Good digital doesn't sound harsh, and good vinyl doesn't sound all warm and fuzzy.

I think we're both on the same page, so please don't take my post as an arguement. Absolutely no arguement intended.

I'm not trying to get you to throw more money into something that you just may not be into, but...

Are your albums clean? There's no substitute for a good steam and vacuum cleaning to my ears. Vacuum cleaners don't have to be expensive (relatively speaking) - my KAB USA vacuum cleaner was about $170 and truly elevated my vinyl sound quality. Combined with my $25 or so hand held steamer, it's gone up another level.

Second thing - have you considered the Pro-Ject Speed Box? It doesn't just change speeds, it's a great sonic upgrade. There's no tradeoffs with it sonically; it's an across the board upgrade. It easily made my 1Xpression sound better than the next deck up the line. It's about $130 or so nowadays.

Thirdly - Acrylic platter. Combined with the Speed Box, it's like a different and far better deck. I think it's about $100.

But for about $250 or so between the acrylic platter and Speedbox, you may be better taking that money and selling the Debut and buying a better deck IMO.

But again, don't force yourself to try to like vinyl. You may convince yourself for a little while, but in the long run you'll come to your senses and kick yourself in the rear end if it's truly not for you. The best way to know is to hear some better decks. Hopefully you've got a dealer or two locally that has one or two set up on the floor. With dealers closing everyday and turntables being a niche within a niche, it's not easy to find one though.

I own both and have spent roughly the same amount on both. My DAC is considered to be "analog sounding" by many - the Rega DAC.

To my ears, vinyl has a certain coolness or swagger to it that digital doesn't have. That's not to say I prefer vinyl to digital. Both have their inherent pros and cons...

People misunderstand the "perfect sound forever" line IMO. I think it was more meant as no degradation in sound quality no matter how many times you listen to it. Cassettes and vinyl albums wear out, CDs don't. CDs don't need the cleaning regimen vinyl does. Digital is far less OCD than vinyl - isolation, cart alignment, tracking force, VTA, yadda yadda yadda.

Vinyl to me sounds more organic and cohesive; more real, more natural.

But that doesn't mean any vinyl album will sound more real than every CD. There's far more consistency in CDs than in vinyl.

The at I look at it, why decide when I can have both? I view digital as everyday listening (not that that's a knock by any means), and vinyl as a special occasion.

Bringing this back to the original post, just because I feel this way doesn't mean everyone or anyone else will or should feel this way. It's all about what makes you happy and what makes you connect to the music. It's your music, system, time, and energy. I really dig what I've got and wouldn't let it go. You should feel the same way, no matter what you decide.

Add to that some analog info can in fact be missing - a scratch on the LP for example.

I'm not bashning analog at all; please see my previous posts.