Going SACD or analog?

Gary (Gdolin) makes some very good points pertaining to the various musical formats and has obviously experience the pluses and minuses of vinly ownership.

I don't see why you need to make a choice; unless money is the concern. If it is then I would suggest you go with the digital format for reasons Gary suggests.

However; I would buy the Sony and if you are not satisfied with is redbook performance, which by the way is quite excellent, you could always have it modded by the likes of Richard Kern (Audiomod). At which point you will have one of the finest sounding players on redbook(IMO) and SACD to boot.

Chuck

In my opinion you are going to need to purchase half speed 180 gm masters or better to get the full benefits of analog over SACD. Standard vinyl, while very good at times, is not, again in my experience, going to outerform SACD at least to a significant degree; given the hassles.

A friend of mine who is into vinyl almost exclusively pays upwards of $50.00 plus and sometimes even north of $150 for high quality vinyl. Even then some of those he has to send back because of quality issues. He goes through a pretty rigorous cleaning method before he ever plays them as he is a very detail oriented individual. Even he complains about the difficulties in maintaining and finding good quality viny.

I have listened to his system and good quality vinyl does sound excellent, admittedly out performing SACD in most instances. But standard vinyl simply isn't there especially considering the hassles.

Again just my opinion

Chuck