I've had a $1500 MusicHall turntable sitting around for close to 8 years now. Unused. And a collection of around 500 vinyl albums going way back. The little phono stage pre I had just wasn't a good fit the MM cartridge and frankly it sounded like crap so it just sat there in my rig unused for all that time.
This week I finally ran a few simulations and built a prototype RIAA phono stage filter with nice op amps, vishay dale resistors, vishay polypropylene and elna silk caps. Powered it with a pair of quiet regulated linear 12 V wallwarts for a quick +/- 12 volt split supply. Took a few rounds to get the gain right for the cartridge which came stock with the MusicHall.
Having been into PC/digital->USB->DAC for the past few years it was quite a revelation to sit down and listen to vinyl again. What a difference. I'm not going to get into the digital vs. vinyl - which-is-better - debate but what struck me was how smooth, liquid and satisfying it was to sit and listen to a few vinyl albums.
What I'm curious about is how is it, despite all the development in bit perfect digital/playback, hi-rez, remastering, better DACs etc, that most digital sounds edgy and bright at least when compared to vinyl? I like both in their own way but why such a difference? Said differently, if derived from the same master tapes, why such a noticeable difference?
