Turkey,
I know you and I agree on many topics, but I'm going to have to throw this out there. I certainly love Frank's DACs. My new Insight+ DAC has taken that realm to a new level, one that I have not yet fully discovered.
There is a quality on vinyl, that many have learned to identify, that sometimes is elusive on a CD. It's hard to explain, but you must have a very revealing LP playback system to appreciate it. While CD's have the dynamic range, sudden impact, bass and and a low noise floor, the turntable with the right cartridge and one of Frank's Insight+ phono boards is very musical. The only way I can describe it is that the edges of the music are different. Perhaps it's the decay of the natural reverb with in the recording, or the more natural roundness of analog distortion, as opposed to the horrible in the red digital overload (the recording engineer's fault), or just the overall sound field in general. The are some evenings with me as well, when the music on vinyl becomes magical. It can bring out emotions that are unexplainable. Suddenly, your tearing up listening to some Roy Orbison song. Why? You become so involved with the music, you forgot about the source, didn't care. I have had this happen less often with CDs too, but I blame that on the other system I have with the only AVA component being the DAC.
The real truth of the matter is that both worlds have their own plus and minus aspects to them. I believe Frank has taken the CD world to a new level of excitement with his newest advances to his DAC line-up. But he has also been working on phono boards. The Insight+ phono board is absolutely killer.
Now here we go, but I think I have better vinyl playback at my house, then anything I heard at RMAF. Some systems where many, many thousands of dollars and they sounded like fingernails on a chalk board. But then that is just my opinion, and I didn't have gobs of time to listen in the other rooms.
When Frank was powering Jim Salk's new HT-4s or whatever the name is now, The new DAC was killer. I heard lots of songs over and over and was always impressed.
I guess I have strattled the fence on this one again.
Wayner