kren0006: So then, if we can agree that a top $300 digital front end beats a top $300 analog front end, how high up the source cost ladder must one climb before analog overtakes?Millercarbon:
Well my 1976 Technics SL1700 was still in its box in the garage so I dug it out hooked it up and spent the rest of the day flabbergasted how easily this ancient relic clobbered CD. Wife came home and agreed.
What I neglected to mention, the cantilever got bent somehow and was eyeballed straight with pliers. That table was about $325 new in 1976. The California Audio Labs CDP it clobbered was three times the price. So I think it safe to say no amount of money will suffice. Analog, even with a bent cantilever, is street level. The source cost ladder you are talking about for digital does not climb up, it descends down through a manhole into the darkness.
Granted, if what you do is tick off boxes on your typical audiophile checklist then a lot of those cheap old turntables are going to come up short. In fact if you are entrenched to the point of refusing to accept what you hear to the point you require every item on the list to be better, well then I give up you win. Because as we all know all you have to do is say, "noise" and digital wins hands down.
Which is why I said up front the only ones like this are audiophiles. Normal people do not listen with a pencil in one hand and a list in the other. Normal people simply experience music. When that is the criteria records are unbeatable, and its not even close.