Howie, I'm a vinylholic. I'll stay that way. I've been told I'm incorrigible on this issue, and I agree. But, my answer for my musical enjoyment may not be yours by a long shot. Why would you want to get into vinyl? There's a vast selection of CD titles in both the new and used CD market to chose from, there are many wonderful digital era performances that have been exceptionally well recorded that will never appear on LP, and there are CD reissues of virtually all of the classic performances of jazz and classical music from the vinyl era. For a CD user, the world's your oyster. Some of my best audio friends have digital-only systems, and their systems sound incredibly good to me.
People talk about the superior sound of vinyl, so do I. My system is all based on vinyl because I believe that. AND, well reproduced CDs/SACDs can and do sound very very good.
So, here's one vinylholic asking, why would you want to go the vinyl route? You've really got to answer that one for yourself based on your listening experience, your sonic priorities, and availability of the music you like. Going down the vinyl path is not easy, it requires a commitment on multiple fronts.
If your consideration is based on thinking that vinyl sounds better, get real clear about your own perception of this. Any difference you hear between vinyl and digital ought to be meaningfully important to you to justify the trouble you'd be going to to go down the vinyl route.
And yes, the LP versions of several of the contemporary recordings by folks like Diana Krall, Alison Krause, Norah Jones sound better. So? There are a ton of other recordings out there on CD/SACD that will never see an LP reincarnation.
My suggestion: find someone local to you who's into vinyl and has a good LP playback setup who'll do some listening with you. Spend time with it. Then think about whether you're getting anything out of it that your current digital setup is not giving you, and if so, is the difference worth it to you. And don't be too surprised if you like the sound of your current digital system better.
Best of luck to you in your search,
People talk about the superior sound of vinyl, so do I. My system is all based on vinyl because I believe that. AND, well reproduced CDs/SACDs can and do sound very very good.
So, here's one vinylholic asking, why would you want to go the vinyl route? You've really got to answer that one for yourself based on your listening experience, your sonic priorities, and availability of the music you like. Going down the vinyl path is not easy, it requires a commitment on multiple fronts.
If your consideration is based on thinking that vinyl sounds better, get real clear about your own perception of this. Any difference you hear between vinyl and digital ought to be meaningfully important to you to justify the trouble you'd be going to to go down the vinyl route.
And yes, the LP versions of several of the contemporary recordings by folks like Diana Krall, Alison Krause, Norah Jones sound better. So? There are a ton of other recordings out there on CD/SACD that will never see an LP reincarnation.
My suggestion: find someone local to you who's into vinyl and has a good LP playback setup who'll do some listening with you. Spend time with it. Then think about whether you're getting anything out of it that your current digital setup is not giving you, and if so, is the difference worth it to you. And don't be too surprised if you like the sound of your current digital system better.
Best of luck to you in your search,