Why didn't I sell my vinyl rig?

For me & my system, the battle between vinyl and bits is essentially neck-and-neck. On the occasions when I let my analytical side rule and do side-by-side comparisons between what I have on vinyl and what I dig up from Qobuz or Idagio, it can go either way.  This is true even when I'm comparing audio-nerd concerns such as soundstaging and slam. Even orchestral string tone is closely fought.

Right now I'm listening to a selection of oddball Dylan home recordings via Qobuz. A sheer impulse selection on my part. In any case, it sounds very, very good, and Dylan's artistic contribution ain't bad, either. Putting it another way, when you stream it's "welcome to the universe."

I have to say, though, that streaming just isn't quite as reliable as analog. Yeah, I'm 100% hardwired to the net but there are more than a few times when the stream will just stop. It always starts up again when I unplug my streamer/D to A converter and then plug it back in, but this is the second streamer/DA converter I've owned and both of them were guilty of this. With a turntable, arm and cartridge it's usually just sheer clumsiness that interrupts the listening.

Back in the audio dark ages...when transistors were usually only found in portable AM radios...your carefully-assembled component mono hi-fi system or one of them new-fangled stereophonic systems were commonly referred to as a rig.