2. analog
  3. 194290-5063

How much do I need to spend to make vinyl sound better than digital?

All,

I have a solid vinyl setup that I like to think of as entry-level “plus:” Project Debut Pro with Sumiko Moonstone cartridge.  I enjoy vinyl for the ritual but find that my digital gear - a $400 ifi streamer and the AKM DAC built into my Anthem preamp - beats the analog rig in most ways.  Far better imaging/soundstage and much tighter bass without the occasional distortion/sibilance/warbling of the vinyl rig.  I haven’t messed with cartridge setup other than to check the factory-performed alignment, which looks perfect.  The table is perfectly balanced, counterweight set correctly with an electronic scale, etc - so I have no reason to think there’s a setup problem.  
 

Is this par for the course for this level of vinyl gear?  What do I need to spend to get my vinyl gear to match the performance of decent digital?  I’m thinking of upgrading to a Clearaudio Concept, perhaps with a Hana SL cartridge, but I want to make sure doing that is going to deliver a fundamentally different experience than what I have right now with the Project/Sumiko combination.

 

No interest in flame wars or rehashing the vinyl/digital debate.  I know vinyl can sound wonderful and am simply trying to decide whether I can afford the price of entry for a system that can gets the basics right (no audible distortion/sibilance, decent imaging).  I thought the Project/Sumiko would have gotten me there, but for whatever reason it hasn’t fit the bill.Thanks for any insights. 

lousyreeds1
facten
2,947 posts
 

So where’s the OP. Comments/suggestions made, questions to the OP asked and, nothing but crickets 

emergingsoul
1,249 posts
 

Vinyl sucks because it limits your choices.  If you're lucky to get a good digital quality recording streamed it's OK infinite choices.

Spending more money as a rabbit hole.  You'll never get an answer to this question.

 

nitewulf
436 posts
 

No such thing imo, most difference is due to mastering, and vintage records which were mastered really well. What you can try to is to get on par with your digital. But it’s gonna be more expensive, digital is much more affordable now to  get to a good level. 
 

mattmiller's avatar
mattmiller
1,533 posts
 

I have moved up the vinyl ladder over the last 20 years and I can tell you things get a lot more sensitive when you get up in the $5,000 and over range. Hopefully you have a lot of clean great sounding original records, because if your comparing today’s horribly pressed,recorded,mastered vinyl records then your getting a really dim view of what vinyl can be.

I would stay in the $1500 range for a turntable and add $500-700 for a great cartridge then $1200 for a decent phono stage, add some real records and Walla!

P.S. I like REGA, Dynavector, Musical surroundings. for what its worth.

P.S. The reason we own vinyl and stream digital is because with vinyl the albums/songs are always there exactly how they are suppose to be, no altered,  or updated, or changed or even removed altogether music you love, that’s the digital way...you don’t own squat!

And when the power goes out you better have CD’s and a player if you wanna hear music! The Internet will not work even if your house has a generator, but a CD player will,  Haha...(not kidding really)

 

 

 

 

Matt M

 

inna
7,923 posts
 

Phone will still work in most cases, just disengage the wi-fi. The sound won't be too good, though.

$1k phono stage will sound better than $12k phono stage only if the latter is not turned on. The other theoretical possibility is that $12k price tag is a joke and reflects nothing. Could be, though I haven't heard of such extremes.

More to discover