shep, maybe a little far afield...but at least it's all in good fun. A good many of these topics, in their waning stages, turn a nasty tide.
Back on the subject at hand...I really think, Dollar for Dollar/Yen for Yen/Euro for Euro, CD (I assume that is the 'digital' that the author is referring to) is a better value for
most of the music playing public. It's been a lot of years since I heard a truly awful CD player (at least 5 years I think) for even as little as $39 you can get reliably good performance; not to mention all the convenient perks of CD playback. Get a Yamaha/Denon, etc. receiver, plug that CD player in and pay particular attention to the Speaker (a mechanical/electrical transducer, and subject to wider variation of sound quality, much like a TT) choice & quality and you good quality for prices most of the music playing public wanna' afford.
I bet a few of you are shocked
by what I just wrote, but it's nothing different than I've written before - a few of you chose to chime in armed with emotions, and not a level-headed demeanor. We're trying to create a community unlike that of AudioAsylum, et al, where folks are free to express their beliefs, and other folks can respond to it
without slaying the post author
Those of us that spend significant time at AC or any of the audiophool websites, are chasing the
last (typically expensive) elusive 10% of currently available. If we're dealing with maybe only 80% (and it's doubtful more than a handful of you out there have a perfectly actualized room to get anywhere near that - I certainly don't
) total of re-approximation of real music anyhow at the current time, any differences between formats is rather small in the overall scheme of things.
However, if asked to choose what is the better overall format choice at higher prices, I'd choose vinyl. At somewhere near $1500 new - including table, arm, cartridge, vacuum machine and isolation - you have a format that better approximates music than CD. If you're a young guy (30-35 and under), for whom investment in records is quite an financial endeavor and for whom vinyl is pretty much a non-existent format - there is really little reason to move to vinyl. But, if you're game, or maybe above age 40 or so and have records sitting there already or a good analog setup available to you for under $1500, you'll be luxuriating in the highest overall quality format
currently available. That
might well change with Blu-Ray and HD-DVD now upon us (I've heard neither, but each digital technology after CD has been slightly better than it, so it stands to reason that these new video/audio formats might be indeed special)
Time will tell, of course
So, until you're prepared to mess with the frustrating electro-mechanical realities of vinyl, and prepared to shell out $1500.00, I think CD is a
better, more
cost-effective alternative
I think I just heard about 15 bodies hit the floor in a mass fainting
