Maui has no brick and mortar HiFi stereo dealer unless you include Target 
There are lots of setup guides on tinternet, including from Schiit themselves.
My observation was/is, that for most of us “computer” was/is connected to “work”. Many told me: “I don’t want a computer in my system, period!”. Therefore I sold a lot of Hifi/Highend streaming devices, but mostly the customers noted additionally: “It’s for my wife and kids!” or “the kitchen/bedroom” or for “background music”. Of course within that context harddrives were welcome too, but mainly they are used for SPOTIFY/TIDAL/QUOBUZ.
Darko says flatly that he absolutely loves vinyl for everything EXCEPT sound quality. He has a Rega P2 with an $800 Zu/Denon cartridge and a $1600 Gold Note H10 phono preamp. Not exactly shabby. But says both his DirectStream and Chord (Dave?) sound better. He loves shopping for records in Berlin’s quirky shops, the collecting, the ritual of cleaning records and the needle, and of playing them, etc. But not the sound quality.
Andrew Robinson, another vinyl devotee, compared the vinyl, CD, and streaming version of a favorite Moby album, and specific only to that album, said the CD (on a Technics SACD player) sounded best. Vinyl second, and streaming a distant third.
Combined with the valuable feedback here, I’ve concluded that my venture isn’t about audiophile sound quality bliss, but rather a return to simpler times. I do have mixed feelings. Watching Darko’s vinyl rituals did make me think “what a colossal hassle!”
Keeping in mind I enjoy the hunt more than the purchase, and I’m not sure when I’ll pull the trigger, but the $499 Fluance RT85 seems hard to argue with. Canadian company made in Taiwan at the same factory as Thoren. Steve Guttenberg says the Fluance build quality puts UTurn and the Rega RP1 to shame. And it comes with an Orton Blue cartridge. Seems hard to argue with as a way to figure out if I like the rituals of vinyl.
Darko says the Rega RP2’s stock cartridge is not great. Thus probably do need to spend an extra $150 there, making it $820.
But my primary stumbling block is where to put a turntable as it won’t fit on my rack in small room where horizontal inches are at a premium and a TV has a solid grip on vertical space!
I have researched the Sol. Setting it up, even with the video, seems to be not for the feint at heart. One reviewer gave it a D- for setup. I would need help for sure.
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Yeah, that’s definitely the downside to it.
…that sounds conclusive, BUT I know people who prefer master tape copies widely over there highly priced turntable or digital setups. These tapes, played on a, let’s say, STUDER Studio machine, are or should be a lot more transperent and “informative” (treble/bass/3D/flow) than all the other formats, but nobody (from the guys, that I know) has any problems with that. All the “rights” and “wrongs” in the digital/TT dicussion are nuked within a blink of the eye as soon the music starts to play… And as far I have had the possibility to experience this, and even (!) with good prerecorded industrial US tapes from the 60s/70s to some degree, I can agree with that. No need to fiddle around with the setup…music from the first moment. My conclusion is, that with all other formats, we have to “adapt” our systems to their strenghts or flaws. At the end it’s that, what Paul claims every now and then: Systems are mostly optimized for digital or analog.
Optimizing for both is hard work and maybe kind of impossible… Everything is compromise.
What about this? Honestly, I have so many stupid boxes with my digital rig, the idea of all an one is appealing. Reviews of the Sumiko Oyster as being soft and silky are appealing. Can add external phono stage later if desired.
Perfect! That was what I wanted…that you get aware why you want to go into vinyl and what to expect.
By the way regarding Darko:
To compare anything by a Moby recording (I like the music) is ridiculous. He mostly works with not even recorded/sampled natural instruments 
But I certainly agree with him that the DS sounds better than any 800$ turntable.
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I do not like the “Oyster” that much - sounds a bit murky…
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100%, Darko is digital productions almost exclusively which will almost always sound better on high res digital.
Put on a decent analogue source pressing though, and blamo! You’ll start to appreciate what vinyl is all about when it comes to sound quality.
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I think you’re right. I imagine the electronic-techno stuff he listens to probably isn’t a great match for a delicate needle-groove situation
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To clarify, it was Andrew Robinson who did the Moby comparison. But yes, Darko loves obscure electronica so much he moved from sunny Sydney to Berlin just to be closer to it.
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I was at a friends place this week and he was spinning Vinyl on his Clearaudio TT. When the stylus hit the run out groove, I’d say “hey man”, your auto return ain’t workin’ 
.
He’d sneer, get up, lower the tonearm back on its cradle, flip the record over, lift the Tonearm, and then line it it up with the lead in grooves.
I don’t miss it or the snow in Canada 
for that matter .
It did sound amazing on his Maggie .7’s/Moscode Amps/Adcom passive Preamp.
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I mean not only vinyl/digital comparisons. I would also never compare two DAC’s with a Moby recording.
I agree that master tapes (or their copies) are certainly better sounding than both, digital and vinyl…they must…they are the source!
I don’t agree with Paul’s often proclaimed “setups are so optimized to digital or vinyl, that they are not comparable”. That’s an avoidance strategy imo.
To clarify, Andrew Robinson is a vinyl devotee. His Moby point was to show that vinyl doesn’t always sound better. It wasn’t meant to be a sweeping statement about the superiority of digital, but rather to show that it all depends.
That’s for sure. Especially most vinyl mass releases don’t have much argumentative base for sounding better. But often electronic music just sounds worse from vinyl, because the turntable is not up to the task of bass reproduction. It is expensive to play the bass of electronic music on level or above what digital provides.
Is vinyl inherently bass light compared to digital, particularly on the entry level?
I love bass and part my idea about vinyl is that it will be more warm and weighty.
No it’s not lighter or fuller in bass by definition.
As I tried to point out, the lesser mechanical resonance control measures of entry level turntables and the worse energy transfer from cartridge over arm to base leads to a less accurate bass response, which mostly means it’s rather thicker/fuller and richer towards mids. You could like it and not recognize the disadvantage of it if you look for bassy and rich sound.
But bass response level among others mainly depends on cartridge/tonearm matching.
A turntable has many variables. If you didn’t hear the exact combination against your DAC before, you can’t know how it sounds compared in tonality.
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