2. analog
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If this sounds like YOUR Turntable story, please share your final chapter

You had a nice budget ($2k-$4K) table, which you enjoyed for years. It always served up the analog goods, and you always felt as if you were in a good place. However, like many of us, you have audiophilia nervosa. Having succumbed to this mystical force that commanded you to upgrade, you took the leap to the next plateau. You immediately heard the advantages of what your new, well designed table was offering up. It was quieter, music emerged from a blacker background. It had tighter, more articulate bass.....mids were clear, layered, involving, yet organized.... Highs were more extended,  filling your listening area with a more believable, 3D presence. You were in awe, for a while! Fast forward to the middle of the story. Even though the table was more substantial, and did many things better than your baby boomer table, you soon realized it appealed more to the brain than your heart. It could tend toward the drier side with many of your go-to vinyl treasures. You ultimately realized that while the new table received more check marks on the audiophile checklist, it was not as engaging on an emotional level. Let me cut to the chase. So you took one or two wrong exits, but you found your way back. In doing so, you once again found that engaging, special something, analog is capable of delivering. Which table brought you back to the analog promise land?
fjn04

Showing 1 response by bdp24

bdp24's avatar
bdp24
10,110 posts
 

fjn, your scenario has been the heart of the argument for the Linn Sondek table since it's introduction in the early 70's. That it is the ability of a table, in fact all links in the hi-fi chain, to play music, not just make sound, that should be the basis for judging it's performance. That there are other tables that perhaps excel in purely sonic terms---tighter bass, more extended highs, etc---but none that "play" music as well. That makes reproduced music feel and move (temporally) the way live music does. Hardcore subjectivists even speak of a table's ability to express the "intent" of the musicians and singers. That's about as subjective as one can get!

There is no set of measurements that correlates with or predicts a tables ability in this regard; it can be discerned only by listening.

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