I first had a Rega RP3 (400), Grado Gold cartridge (250), and NAD phonostage (200). Vinyl did not approach digital quality. A Clearaudio Performance se table (3000), ARC PH 5 phonostage (2500), and a Clearaudio Maestro (1200) came very close to digital quality. I now have the same table, but with a Stradivari cartridge (4000) and an ARC PH8 phonostage (7000). Finally I have surpassed digital. Not only did staging improve with the many upgrades, the amount of music taken from the grooves by the cartridge increased dramatically with every upgrade. I was taken with my ability to play all my records when I first got back into vinyl 10 years ago. If I knew how much music was being left in the record grooves with my first few systems, I might have sold my records, bought a great DAC, and saved tons of money. Point 1: It takes a lot of money to get CD quality out of a vinyl rig. If you are not spending a lot of money, you are listening to vinyl because you like to (that's me), not because the sound is "better" (IMO); far too much music is being left on the record. I now stream on one all-digital system (4000 all in) and have a main analogue-only system (40,000). Point 2: You have to talk about money invested if you want to compare digital to analogue. That's just my opinion, though; different ears hear the same things very differently. BTW, prices provided are new prices, certainly not what I paid or will ever be able to afford.
Vinyl VS Digital
After 20+ years I broke out my turn table from the 70's again. I have been mostly listening to CD and streaming music for the last 15 years on higher end gear in a dedicated and treated home theater room. I also have a dedicated two channel system in the same room.
All the hype surrounding analog has prompted to me to purchase a dedicated preamp so that I could once again hook up my TT. I also purchased an Aurlic Aries to compare. I'm ready to upgrade my old Technics SL 1600 MK2 running a Grace Cartridge. But I have concerns.
I could care less about the additional hiss, crackle and Pop thats not in digital. I think its cool to put on an album and just listen to my 30 year old small collection from when I was a teenager.
I started doing A/B comparisons by switching between the TT and the Aries (FLAC). I even bought new vinyl to do so. The thing keeping me from going "All In" is the imaging. No matter what I do with (aligning the cartridge), I cannot get the imaging to match that of digital. Specifically, voice and instrument that stems from center stage with digital cannot be reproduced with the TT as source. One might say the stage is wider but its too wide to point where definition is lost. Don't get me wrong it still sounds good but is it right? Is it my TT or is it in the recording. Or is this the difference I am suppose to be hearing?
All the hype surrounding analog has prompted to me to purchase a dedicated preamp so that I could once again hook up my TT. I also purchased an Aurlic Aries to compare. I'm ready to upgrade my old Technics SL 1600 MK2 running a Grace Cartridge. But I have concerns.
I could care less about the additional hiss, crackle and Pop thats not in digital. I think its cool to put on an album and just listen to my 30 year old small collection from when I was a teenager.
I started doing A/B comparisons by switching between the TT and the Aries (FLAC). I even bought new vinyl to do so. The thing keeping me from going "All In" is the imaging. No matter what I do with (aligning the cartridge), I cannot get the imaging to match that of digital. Specifically, voice and instrument that stems from center stage with digital cannot be reproduced with the TT as source. One might say the stage is wider but its too wide to point where definition is lost. Don't get me wrong it still sounds good but is it right? Is it my TT or is it in the recording. Or is this the difference I am suppose to be hearing?