Opinion on Turntable & Transport / DAC.

They can't sound the same. Better or worse is up to you. Go to a high end dealer and audition a good vinyl rig, see what you think. If you're a high strung type you might not like to hear an occasional pop or click on an old record (though if you get a well tracking stylus and take care of new records this isn't a problem).

Also, records do not have to cost $30. Used records tend to be cheaper than used CDs and you can find them by the boxfull, sometimes whole collections which yeild many records for cents apiece. New records cost about like CDs; standard pressings $5-15 or 10-25 for double LPs; heavyweights and virgin vinyl imports from about $15 up. $30 would get you a really nice pressing and would be like spending the same on the fancy gold CDs and whathaveyous...I'd go out on a limb and say you may find the difference in quality vinyl more profound than the higher priced CDs. I do anyway...

Both can sound good. It's a shame about SACD because it did (does) sound better than CD to my ear. But I prefer vinyl.

In my experience, it took approximately 1/3 of the dollars to get "better" performance with LP's. That is to say, I had a very good sounding (to me) CD transport, DAC, Cables, Pre-amp, etc., and the Analog system that replaced it cost about 1/3 the price.

Your mileage may vary.

Dave

Given a well-made recording either digital or analog, a CD system can sound as satisfying as an analog system. In my humble experience though, a CD system cannot sound better.

Trouble is, the 'current day gear' criteria would apply to the turntable/arm/cartridge/phono preamp also. And you can now drop at least $100k on the analogue stuff. Plus the modern pressings (at $30 a pop) need to be factored in. I have never heard anything in this price range digital or analogue, total system cost, so I don't really know. From my own meager experience, the lp experience is more 'live' or 'real' in some sense than the cd. So, I think an all-out assault on both sides could very well end in favor of lps--or at least certain well-chosen lps. All this is hindsight to me. When CD's first came out, I quit listening to LP's as fast as I could. As did many others. Good question.