Vinyl vs. top-notch digital

Hi Jeff,

If you happen to live in LA or get out this way come over to my house and hear the difference. I own the Lector Digicode/Digidrive. Harry Pearson(and other major reviewers-do a google search) considers the Lector to be one of the most analogue sounding digital rigs out there. I happen to agree with him. Having said that it still doesn't come close to my analogue setup.

If you can't come out my way find a dealer near you that sells turntables. Bring your CD player over and compare. That's what I did. I walked out of there with a turntable.

As far as the time investment it's really not that bad. Unless you buy a really tweaky turntable like the Walker(or any table that has a linear tracking arm for that matter) you shouldn't have to adjust your turntable once it has been setup properly. Yeah you have to clean the records(but I don't do it all the time only when they need it), and yes you have to get up and switch sides but other than that it's really not that bad. Plus not being able to skip tracks is a bonus in a way. You start listening to albums instead of songs.

As far as noise goes 95% of my records(new or used) are as quite as CD.

Speaking of setup it is the key to good vinyl playback. Only a properly setup turntable will sound better than CD. If you do decide to go vinyl do yourself a favor and find a dealer in your area who really know how to setup a turntable correctly.

As to the statement that new music is not being put out on vinyl that is incorrect. Please go to the following link for some interesting info on this.

http://www.wired.com/entertainment/music/commentary/listeningpost/2007/10/listeningpost_1029
http://blog.wired.com/music/2008/04/riaa-admits-vin.html

One last thing only you can decide what sound you prefer. To me analogue sounds more like the real thing, but there are plenty of guys on Audiogon that prefer digital. So, again, go check it out for yourself and see which you prefer.

Justin

Why do these questions always degrade to a digital vs. analog debate? Who cares? It's like trying to convince someone to switch religions or political parties.

Jeff just go listen for yourself. Bring your cd player and do the comparisons.

Oh and about the wired article the reason I posted it was to point out that new music is being put out on vinyl. That's it.

Justin

David,

From reading Sns post I think he meant optimizing each source not the system. I have gone thru that to. I started with an $8,000 piece of crap Krell CD player, then went to $4,300(at the time) Lector CDP-7t which blew the Krell and every other CD player I heard away, then I just upgraded to the $11,000 Lector Digicode and Digidrive. Now my digital system is optimized. However my analogue still is not optimized. Why? I have $16,100 into the turntable, cartridge, and arm, and it sounds incredible, so what's the problem? Well because when I can afford it I want the Brinkman turntable. Then my analogue system will be optimized. Of course if you heard my system you would think I was an idiot because it sounds amazing.