I think anyone who is honest about vinyl realizes how much of a pain it can be to get the best out the medium, there are some many variables in play in system selection, setup and playback, and it is so easy to be wandering in the wilderness and not getting the best sound. It takes a degree of patience, time, and a bit of obsession to achieve the its potential.
I have to say I have been enjoying the hell out my Marantz SA8005. Plug it in, throw in a silvery disc and it plays music without much hassle, and really sounds great with a good recording (as does vinyl for that matter).
I am not sure why there needs to constantly be this debate of analog vs digital. Do we have to make a choice?
There are 100,000+ recordings that only exist on vinyl and have not been remastered to digital. Why would we want to give up listening to these? If we want to listen to these, we, as audiophiles as well (presumably) music lovers, wouldn't we want as good of a playback system as one can afford. Why should we settle for poorly engineered digital remastering of analog recordings when we can listen to the original analog or a top quality remaster.
For new music that exists in the digital domain, why would we choose listening to a vinyl version from a digital dub if a high res digital format exists. Admittedly, the vinyl version off a high res digital master is likely better sounding than a downsampled 44/16 CD. But, shouldn't we want to have as good of a digital system as we can afford for high res and standard res digital, particularily for music only in digital format.
If you let music determine your choices, you really want both to get the best from your music collection.
I think part of the appeal of vinyl is the ability for the technically inclined audiophile to affect a significant change via minor tweaks in setup or cartridge changes. You have the ability to experiment and tailor your sound to your whims to suit your listening preferences, and often it does not cost you anything. That kind of flexibility can be part of enjoyment of the hobby. It is a bit harder on the digital side, since usually it involved wholesale replacement of a component (disc player, DAC, etc.) at considerable cost, and you are pretty much stuck with what you get, soundwise, between changes.
So, lets enjoy both.
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