Is It Time To Sell My Vinyl Rig?

Hi Goofyfoot
I have seen what your problem is and can solve it for you.  You say:

"shopping for arcane mono classical and jazz vinyl ."   and:

" Better soundstage, outstanding separation and position of instruments,"

You're listening to the vinyl in mono and the digital in stereo.
Fix that and you'll soon be back on track.
No need for expensive brain surgery or to sell your Thorens.
Indeed, you should get a better turntable.

No fee.

Wow, dude.  200 whole records.  You've really gone all in.  I think I passed that by 1975.  Go ahead and sell.  

You'll regret it deeply and for years. That you're asking and not already selling probably tells you that. If you need the money for surgery, and you're selling for that reason, it indicates you will not be readily able to replace the items once lost. It's always easy to take things for granted.

Keep in mind real sale values versus asking prices, seller fees, items randomly selling for less than going rate, shipping and packing costs, risks of seller complaint. Profit is not sheer, and not always to be counted upon.

Debates about formats inevitably are silly. Each has something to offer which another does not. And some aspects of sound are readily measurable, or captured in measurements commonly used, and others are not. E.g., timbre. Any analysis of one medium's superiority over another ends up being mechanical and reductive.

Choose between health and any material do-hickey? What's to decide?

OK, now I understand what you said, and asked, better than initially.

Not comparing Mono to Stereo, it's just that the former thrill of the hunt and find is gone, AND you are streaming happily.

SO, why keep the Vinyl rig?

I now say, keep the LP's, sell the equipment, get the surgery.

IF you ever go back to vinyl, I highly recommend you go for a TT with 2 tonearms, have Mono and Stereo available instantly. 

btw, it was pointed out here, and I find is true: they sound better if you play your Mono LP's thru only one speaker.

The improvements of a Mono cartridge and now a single speaker, is the improvement in the distinction of individual instruments, not imaging, but awareness of the Trombone, trumpet, ...

For me, and I have to suspect others, part of the fun of these older LP's is to hear the greats when they were young, their development thru time, thru various collaborations, the development of what bacame their signature sound ...

I'll say it again for others who have not heard good Mono: the engineering and recording techniques in the late 40's and early 50's were quite good. All the great mono equipment, speaker systems developed after WWII were not to reproduce noise, there is a lot of great mono music!