Can digital get to vinyl sound and at what price?

[Kingrex]

$10k for a vinyl rig is about right. JR really likes the new Technique something for about $5k. Add a $2500 cart and a Channel D Lino 3.3 for about $3600 and you have a very competent vinyl setup. So about $12k.

I have a vinyl setup because I like classical. I have a cheap media that produces jems at times. There are a lot of $1 to $5 classical records that play well. If your not into classical, I agree the price of reissue records and how well they play compared to digital is not worth the investment.

 

[PeterA]

$10k for a vinyl rig is about right. JR really likes the new Technique something for about $5k. Add a $2500 cart and a Channel D Lino 3.3 for about $3600 and you have a very competent vinyl setup. So about $12k.

I have a vinyl setup because I like classical. I have a cheap media that produces jems at times. There are a lot of $1 to $5 classical records that play well. If your not into classical, I agree the price of reissue records and how well they play compared to digital is not worth the investment.

I have an old college 1980s Denon direct Drive turntable with original cartridge and arm. It sounds pretty darn good for under $500. There are probably under 800 hours on the cartridge. I loan it out to friends who have digital, and they simply plug it into a phono input with an SUT I gave them. They are blown away.

 

[Kingrex]

I have an old college 1980s Denon direct Drive turntable with original cartridge and arm. It sounds pretty darn good for under $500. There are probably under 800 hours on the cartridge. I loan it out to friends who have digital, and they simply plug it into a phono input with an SUT I gave them. They are blown away.

Same for.a particular JVC. The DIY JVC guys do perform some damping and stiffening of parts. But its a darn good table. You still need a cart and the phono pre is very important.

On the flip side, you can give someone a Dragonfly DAC and portable headphone type server and the digital is amazingly good.

 

[thedudeabides]

But many of these late 1950s-early 1960s LP are now very expensive and/or difficult to obtain.

Yesterday I was listening to Bud Powell's 1957 album "The Amazing Bud Powell, vol 3". I would bet that the original LP has better quality than the digital releases, but a near-mint version of the original LP on discogs is worth 300$... It may be worth purchasing if you are a die-hard fan of Powell, and you are going to spend many evenings listening to it.

Vinyl is fun to listen to, but digital is unavoidable if you care about music as much as high fidelity.

Comment on digital, cost and caring about music. Never was a big country / bluegrass music fan. Given the rave accolades, decided to try the Alison Krauss + Union Station Live CD. Personal music genres are heavily classical and jazz biased.

This 2 CD set, assuming you like amazing vocal talent with equally gifted musicianship, is a true treasure. Even if you are not a fan of this genre, you might want to give it a try. FYI, it includes the song "Constant Sorrow" from the O Brother Where Art Thou / Cohen Bros. movie. Post fire, I have been slowly rebuilding my CD library with my "gotta have" choices for car audio / travelling music. Bought used on Amazon for $6. End of comment. Best.

 

[thedudeabides]

Vinyl was great before there were CDs.

Are you suggesting that the introduction of CD's caused the degredation of LP sound quality?

 

[Lagonda]

Comment on digital, cost and caring about music. Never was a big country / bluegrass music fan. Given the rave accolades, decided to try the Alison Krauss + Union Station Live CD. Personal music genres are heavily classical and jazz biased.

This 2 CD set, assuming you like amazing vocal talent with equally gifted musicianship, is a true treasure. Even if you are not a fan of this genre, you might want to give it a try. FYI, it includes the "Contant Sorrow" song from the O Brother Where Art Thou / Cohen Bros. movie. Post fire, I have been slowly rebuilding my CD library with my "gotta have" choices for car audio / travelling music. Bought used on Amazon for $6. End of comment. Best.

Yes that is a wonderful album, originally recorded digitally direct to DSD, own it on SACD, CD and MoFi vinyl box. You would probably enjoy Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's "Will the circle be unbroken" 3 albums collaboration with a lot of interesting pop/bluegrass/ country performers. Comes as a collection on multiple CD's too. Highly recommended, great sound too.

 

[PeterA]

That’s kinda low for realism.

Whats your room noise floor ..? Would have to be pretty low for 72/74 db to have any realism ..!

I agree. I am listening to a DG Stravinsky LP of chamber music played by the Boston Symphony Chamber players. My dBA meter indicates lows in the low 60s with a few peaks in the low 90s, a 30dB range. The majority is in the 75 to 85 range. With this kind of music, the dynamic swings are quite large. The sound is very immediate and alive sounding in my fairly small room. My corner horns are about 15 feet away from me.

 

[sparkie]

Are you suggesting that the introduction of CD's caused the degredation of LP sound quality?

Its when they changed mastering standards around 1985 that all of it started.
What I find wrong with digital, is they never had established a recording reference level and as a result, the audio is louder and the mix shallower than what was mixed. I find some improve if the signal peak is reduced or normalized to -1.5 to -3 dbfs. I think most of this positive effect is caused by the DAC having headroom to reproduce transients. So the mileage may vary due to how well the DAC reproduces transients.

 

[kamen56]

Love vinylizer in my Weiss 501-4ch. Really gives to digital this analog flavour and listenability.
Put filter disabled,enabled 0db and enabled 5db on presets and simply listen to music.
Found 99% of time I prefer filter enabled, 50% 0db and 50% 5db...
Usually 5db for older recordings which I love a lot.
I have not bad analogue setup as well - and use it much less now.
My amplification is all modern tubes-revealing but with that old deep yellow tube tone.
I cannot stand something else - "neutral" (as most describe it) is unlistenable to my ears...