Vinyl Help - Turntable, Cartridge, Phono Stage? Help - My digital sounds WAY better than my Vinyl

[jdmac]

New to the forum. I am looking for a little help improving my vinyl setup.

My digital setup is Tidal (hi-fi) into a Musical Fidelity x10dac into a Musical Fidelity A5 integrated Amp. Speakers are Magnepan 1.6 (MG1.6QR). High-quality recordings sound magical—huge soundstage, detailed, but also with a lovely warmth, especially going through the tube stage on the x10dac.

I dipped my toes into vinyl with a Uturn Audio Orbit. I got it with the upgraded acrylic platter and a Grado Black1. I am disappointed with the sound quality,a and it's just not fun to play records when they sound like this. Perhaps the mistake was the Grado Black? Or perhaps I was expecting too much from vinyl?

Is this saveable with a better cartridge? Or maybe a phono preamp? Most think the phone stage on the A5 is solid. Perhaps a better turntable?

Part of me thinks I nailed it with putting together the digital setup and I may not be able to achieve the same with vinyl?? Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks all!!!

 

[Mike Lavigne]

New to the forum. I am looking for a little help improving my vinyl setup.

My digital setup is Tidal (hi-fi) into a Musical Fidelity x10dac into a Musical Fidelity A5 integrated Amp. Speakers are Magnepan 1.6 (MG1.6QR). High-quality recordings sound magical—huge soundstage, detailed, but also with a lovely warmth, especially going through the tube stage on the x10dac.

I dipped my toes into vinyl with a Uturn Audio Orbit. I got it with the upgraded acrylic platter and a Grado Black1. I am disappointed with the sound quality,a and it's just not fun to play records when they sound like this. Perhaps the mistake was the Grado Black? Or perhaps I was expecting too much from vinyl?

Is this saveable with a better cartridge? Or maybe a phono preamp? Most think the phone stage on the A5 is solid. Perhaps a better turntable?

Part of me thinks I nailed it with putting together the digital setup and I may not be able to achieve the same with vinyl??

welcome @jdmac, to What's Best Forum. congrats on enjoying your digital.

yes, you can achieve it, but it might take some effort.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks all!!!

honestly i'm not familiar with your vinyl gear. so hard to make recommendations as to where to upgrade. but before you go and spend money on a better cartridge or turntable or arm or phono, make sure your set-up is optimal. if you are not knowledgeable about set-up then investigate that. and at least as significant as set-up, is the vinyl pressings you are playing. with vinyl much of the magic is in the media. vinyl based on digital sources many times will not really deliver much vinyl magic. some of it can be quite good too. so maybe tell us examples of the vinyl you are comparing to your digital. these days digital has really improved, so there is a level of gear and pressings it takes to separate it from good digital. you can't just throw anything out there and expect it to rise above digital. not to say it won't sound good.

and there are lots of threads here on how much you need to spend to get vinyl to sound better than digital, and other one's on how to get digital to sound better than vinyl. and all sorts of variables of that. so look around for those, use the 'search' function and dive in. lots of garbage to sift through to get to some answers, but they are there to find. if you need help to find those threads just ask.

good luck.

 

[mtemur]

That’s normal. Digital sounds better than vinyl in most home audio setups. Don’t get me wrong—when a vinyl setup is done properly, it can sound better than any digital source. But it requires a certain amount of knowledge, time and good equipment (turntable, tonearm, cartridge, phono stage, etc.) with proper alignment. Even then, you still need well-cut and well-pressed records. In the end total cost may be more than what you’re willing to spend. I’m afraid beating digital won’t happen with a U-Turn turntable.

You may receive responses arguing that vinyl can outperform digital even with the equipment you have right now, but I don’t think it’s true. I’m fully into vinyl and believe in its superiority in terms of sound quality, but I’m also aware what digital can offer. Knowledge is very important to make a vinyl setup sound good, even more so than the equipment itself.

 

[jdmac]

welcome @jdmac, to What's Best Forum. congrats on enjoying your digital.

yes, you can achieve it, but it might take some effort.

honestly i'm not familiar with your vinyl gear. so hard to make recommendations as to where to upgrade. but before you go and spend money on a better cartridge or turntable or arm or phono, make sure your set-up is optimal. if you are not knowledgeable about set-up then investigate that. and at least as significant as set-up, is the vinyl pressings you are playing. with vinyl much of the magic is in the media. vinyl based on digital sources many times will not really deliver much vinyl magic. some of it can be quite good too. so maybe tell us examples of the vinyl you are comparing to your digital. these days digital has really improved, so there is a level of gear and pressings it takes to separate it from good digital. you can't just throw anything out there and expect it to rise above digital. not to say it won't sound good.

and there are lots of threads here on how much you need to spend to get vinyl to sound better than digital, and other one's on how to get digital to sound better than vinyl. and all sorts of variables of that. so look around for those, use the 'search' function and dive in. lots of garbage to sift through to get to some answers, but they are there to find. if you need help to find those threads just ask.

good luck.

thanks for the input. much appreciated. i will do some homework on vinyl from analog sources and also will make sure my setup is dialed in. i know my setup is super low end compared to many, but was hopeful i could at least get close to my bang for buck digital setup without scrapping college for one of my four kids . I have some vinyl, and I at least want the sound to be tolerable as I study the cover art. Looks like Van Morrison Astral Weeks gets nice marks and is analog to vinyl. Can't hurt to pick up such a lovely album.

 

[PeterA]

jdmac, welcome to WBF. Do you have any friends who are into vinyl whom you can visit? How does their vinyl sound? I agree with those who have said that when it comes to vinyl, knowledge and experience are very important. I have an old Denon direct drive turntable that I lent to a couple friends for very long periods of time and they loved what they were hearing from their old records, so much so that they went and bought new turntables, arms, and cartridges. And they’re used to listening to Digital. I think you can start by picking a good vintage turntable and arm and cartridge on eBay, make sure it’s set up right, and simply enjoy. Maybe ask one of your vinyl friends to hook it all up and then start exploring and learning. Who knows where it will take you?