There way too many variables within this argument. I started out in the late 60’s with decent separates, and the only choices were turntables, then reel to reel for recording LPs. Eight tracks were never considered, due to performance issues.
Fast forward to the 80s when CDs came out in force. The combination of diminished size and less fussiness and the ability to play the same item at home and in cars killed the underperforming cassettes.
Now we have DACs, streaming and a variety of ways to take music anywhere.
What gets lost in all the arguments is system price points versus sound quality. The few with unlimited budgets live in a different world tan most of the rest of us.
I am lucky in that I live somewhere in the upper middle ground. My current system makes it sound like Eva Cassidy is in the room singing directly to me. This is in a digital format. Time and circumstance (divorce) caused me to lose my vinyl rig years ago and I decided my constant moving back then was not conducive to rebuilding in vinyl.
I still love what vinyl does, but the structural impediments keep me from revisiting the form, Not the sound.
I would posit that what we see if fairly comparing systems at a variety of budget constraints is that decent sound can be acquired at a modest cost, then you get into the audiophile marginal cost versus marginal gain debate that will never be resolved for all the known reason. Once you pass the point of five figures in your system, gains at the margin become ever thinner.
In context for this debate, I own a Mercedes E400 coupe that has all the bells and whistles, and my other car is a 1958 Austin-Healey Bugeye sprite that makes me smile every single day.
Enjoy your rig, digital, vinyl or both, no one will make you change your mind, most of all, enjoy the Music!
Fast forward to the 80s when CDs came out in force. The combination of diminished size and less fussiness and the ability to play the same item at home and in cars killed the underperforming cassettes.
Now we have DACs, streaming and a variety of ways to take music anywhere.
What gets lost in all the arguments is system price points versus sound quality. The few with unlimited budgets live in a different world tan most of the rest of us.
I am lucky in that I live somewhere in the upper middle ground. My current system makes it sound like Eva Cassidy is in the room singing directly to me. This is in a digital format. Time and circumstance (divorce) caused me to lose my vinyl rig years ago and I decided my constant moving back then was not conducive to rebuilding in vinyl.
I still love what vinyl does, but the structural impediments keep me from revisiting the form, Not the sound.
I would posit that what we see if fairly comparing systems at a variety of budget constraints is that decent sound can be acquired at a modest cost, then you get into the audiophile marginal cost versus marginal gain debate that will never be resolved for all the known reason. Once you pass the point of five figures in your system, gains at the margin become ever thinner.
In context for this debate, I own a Mercedes E400 coupe that has all the bells and whistles, and my other car is a 1958 Austin-Healey Bugeye sprite that makes me smile every single day.
Enjoy your rig, digital, vinyl or both, no one will make you change your mind, most of all, enjoy the Music!