The best way to start adding A=analog to my system

OP,

That is pretty good, I think you are taking away the right stuff. . But the table and arm are really important. I just had my Linn LP12 sub chassis replaced… it was a fabricated metal plate that was replaced with a solid piece of metal with different diameter holes drilled in it (the Keel) to dampen vibrations… had a surprising large effect.

So, it all matters. I fiddled with sub $2K turntables for a couple decades. They sounded ok. Then I got my first audiophile table the VPI Aries… and a ridiculously expensive cartridge.. the Van den Hull Frog ($2.5K?). I just dropped my jaw… the table just completely got rid of surface noise.. it just disappeared.. pops and clicks disappeared into the background. The cartridge just picked up levels of detail I could not imagine was possible.

Today, I own a Linn LP12 with a Koetsu Rosewood Signature cartridge (~5K). I put a Silent Running Audio Isolation platform under it ~(3K). I also upgraded my tone arm to Line’s top of the line toe arm (~5K)… wow… greater solidity and detail.

But you are definitely correct… without a fantastic phono stage, you are not going to hear it. Without my Audio Research Reference 3 Phonostage… I would not hear all the incredible improvements in my TT.

I have reached a very interesting place in the analog vs CD, playing files, and streaming. They all sound virtually the same… and better than I have ever heard any of them. This has been a truly great revelation. How?

All my equipment is made by the same company… Audio Research… very importantly the phono stage and DAC… but also the preamp and amp. My turntable (Linn LP12) has a very carefully chosen cartridge (Koetsu Rosewood signature) to match my musical taste and my streamer (Aurender W20SE) to be extremely detailed and natural sounding. The result is the character of the sound is identical. I just upgraded my turntable with a top of the line arm and sub chassis. The character did not change… but the level of detail increased.

Think about this! What this says is the character of what you hear is primarily the result of the signal chain, not the source media. If you think about it, it makes sense as well. It appeared otherwise historically for a very long time because of the inability to build digital equipment to optimize some part of the digital path. But that is no longer true.

I am not inclined to profundities, but this is profound. It also points to digital streaming… because if it is only a matter of getting your components right to get the sound right… then you get a nearly infinite library with almost no cost and don’t have to collect physical disks. Unless, you like to fiddle with physical median.

I understand what you have heard and want. I have owned turntables for over fifty years. At first analog could not be duplicated at any cost with digital… then it could but at a huge difference in cost. The differential has been reduced year by year. At this point you can get the “same” sound out of digital for not much more. But like anything… it takes effort. You have some very good equipment. Whatever the sound you liked, you can get through digital… and likely for the same price or less than getting into vinyl.

Getting into analog will require a turntable and phono stage… plus buying record and a record cleaner. To try and abstract this: A turntable with cartridge and a Phonostage should cost each roughly the same as your preamp and amp… which should be on the same as DAC and Streamer. These need to be carefully chosen, not just some random purchase… obvious this is a generalization… but my system ended up pretty close to this (see my UserID). The phono stage is really important.

So as a quick review of your system. I would invest in a great streamer (Aurender is my choice… it is all they do).. if that doesn’t do it then trade in the CD / Player / DAC for a great DAC (or CD player / DAC). A great streamer (stand alone is required for audiophile sound and it should be an investment similar to amp or preamp a bit less than speakers.

In my system vinyl and digital sound the same. There is no “vinyl character” that sounds better (although I know this difference as for most of my life it was obvious)… both digital and analog have the same character. One can sound a bit better on on because of mastering.