Vinyl or wait for the new stuff??

I think vinyl is clearly superior to SACD, based on listening on my relatively modest system. The Pro-ject RM10 with a Sumiko Blackbird is less than $3000 and will get you very near the ultimate in resolution.

1-bit technology with a 5.6mHz sampling rate CAN indeed surpass vinyl, but I think that the lack of consumer demand for high quality signals is going to limit the availability of high quality music in ultra high resolution fomats. I DID buy a Korg MR1000 to archive my vinyl and show off to friends and make the occasional live recording, but I think we're a few years away from hi-rez digital that equals vinyl.

Dave

I've been reading Peter Aczel on and off since the mid-1970s. IMHO, he shouts to make his point of the day, but is as likely to flip-flop as a fish in the bottom of the boat. Yes, CDs can sound pretty darn good and digital can sound extremely good, but what we can order online is usually much better in vinyl. It has to do with the format first, but also the care with which the perveyors of vinyl put their offerings together.

Now it's getting harder and harder to buy a CD that's not seriously overcompressed. The SACDs are getting all screwed up trying to offer a surround version of a two-channel recording. With vinyl they're forced to stick to the basics and do a really good job of that.

I've got an incredible DSD recorder that'll give me 130dB of dynamic range and make better than vinyl 5.6MHz recordings, but there's no software available. We'll see what happens, but with the transition to downloads, all the momentum is toward mp3. There are some really good downloads, but they're few and far between.

Anyway, I wouldn't but a lot of stock in Mr. Aczel's rants.

Dave

Chashmal, why would you say SACD is a joke? I'm finding that it meets and/or beats vinyl, depending on the engineering. For instance, all the SACD reissues of the classica RCA recordings of the 1950s are as good or superior to my "shaded dog" copies of the same.

With the right playback equipment, even CDs are not "a joke." They leave something to be desired, but with new upscaling schemes to DSD, elimation of jitter in some machines and other enhancements, the format is finally living up to it's promise.

I too like the hi rez download direction, BUT downloading 3-gig files is a drag, particularly when there are errors in the middle of the download. Even on a T1 line the downloads have been slow and inaccurate for me.

Dave