I don’t miss vinyl at all either. Gave it up a year and a half ago now. I still have a pile of LPs that must go. They take up so much space but my daughters won’t let me sell them. I’m starting to sell some anyway…easy money for stereo upgrades.
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My point was, that with tapes suddenly You forget about tweaking in a minute. They sound good with near any good system from day one… With CDs or records You never stop to fiddle around, because You are many times “blind flying”, because You do not know, what has been done with the original source, and You want to make Your favourites sound good at any price.
I agree with Paul in so far, that I have observed for years, that many owners bend their system “into shape” to fit into their “philosophy”. Many of them have a problem with a neutral point of view. So some WANT to believe, that analog has immanent “more bass” and digital sound is per se “thin”, even if it is obvious, that there setup compensates the mismatch of their overblown TT sound. This is getting better now since a few years, but some of them still do not move. I think, You know the claims of Michael Fremer, that a 300$ TT beats any CD system - an he owns a big DCS stack (ok, I for myself do not like it that much as well…). Now, with Highres, he starts to become more…diplomatic 
This has all, oddly, got me thinking about CDs as well.
Has the consigliere calculated what level of CD player transcends streaming for sound quality?
And what about ripped CDs playing on a hard drive vs physical CDs playing through said transport?
Just trying to get ahead of the curve for when CDs make their comeback 
Tapes…yeah…jut as Steve Hoffman once pointed out:
a master tape is a work tool, it’s not meant to play on our stereos. It’s unmastsred, which in the best case is transferred 1:1 to the media, but in most cases it’s not “better” sounding, because something has to be done with it to make it sound good at home. In any case it sounds better technically at least, just as a picture out of our cameras viewed directly is the most original version of it. But if it’s slightly dark, it looks better when it’s photoshopped a little.
Systems…vinyl and digital get closer the better they get (n tonality anyway). IMO the theory of a system adjusted only for one of them in a way that we can’t compare both there is valid more or less only for a level where both sound cliche-like.
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I think, the “Master Tapes”, You get from “Analog Productions” etc. are the prepared masters and not raw.
You are right: In a “grown up” system both “analog” and “digital” can sound pretty similar. But I can hear the voices of both “camps” shouting: If that’s the case, something must be wrong 
That would be interesting if they „master“ a tape copy or just copy it…no clue…if they master it, it would be a 3rd generation copy. Unmastered master -> mastered tape -> sold copies.
Yes, many tend to protest, but it would be a mess if in tonality the peak of both would be more different than two DAC‘s or two turntables.
I think AP sells copys of the tapes, they use for their vinyl and SACD reissues. As I remember RCA took their masters and “prepared” them as usual for the market = second gen. From that copies the old vinyl was cut and later CDs were made. “Classic Records” claimed, that they went back to the unprepared masters, which know sounded completely different to that, what collectors were used to. Some liked, how they sounded, many loathed them (most of all the sellers of the “originals”, which Jack Pfeiffer oddly enough did not prefer over the CDs, which he supervised). As far as I know AP went back to the “prepared” ones, puts them through their own “chain”, and misses out all the “dynamic compression”, which was necessary in the “old days” (but created a special sound for itself) and offers copys from that outcome on tape, vinyl and SACD. That’s what I read out of all the information I could find about. Similar the story of Verve etc…
This may be an own topic now, but I don’t fully get it yet…
Usually the unmastered uncompressed (as compression was usually added during vinyl cutting if applied for the original pressings) original mastertape is used to master vinyl from it directly. The stamper is the mastered part, there’s no tape copy inbetween usually (but it could be).
If you want to sell tapes, I think you can’t directly master from the mastertape to the sold copies, you have to produce a mastered version of the original mastertape first and copy from it.
So in case both, vinyl and tape copies are sourced from an original mastertape that needs mastering, the tape copies are one more tape generation down compared to the vinyl (or CD). So far my understanding.
What about phono preamps? Is the Vincent Pho 8 good? I’ve seen it on sale for almost half price.
Looks like an awful lot of phono amp for not much money, separate power stage at that cost is unusual and a huge positive.
The reviews I’ve come across all look very good:
For the price, it looks extremely capable.
Just do yourself a favor and rip them all (or at least the ones you care for anyways) to 96/24 files. Trust me, you’ll have times when you’ll miss them and having the files doesn’t hurt. It’s a painful time consuming process but on my old budget rig, I could not tell the difference between the unprocessed rip and the original Vinyl playback.
Cheers,
Joe
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Thanks man, ship has sailed. No turntable, sold during the purge. I save my regrets for other stuff.
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Ask yourself the obvious question, why is it 50% off considering vinyl demand is on the upswing.
Discontinued model that has been replaced.
https://www.vincent-tac.de/en/product-types/phono-preamplifier/pho-300.html
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Here is an Absoute Sound Review by Neil Garder, who IMO is a little more credible than ASR. I have not heard the Pho-8 the review implies it is rather colored in its presentation.
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Just take care at the end that the non-switchable 100 Ohm input impedance is the right one for your cartridge (will probably be). Separation of power supply at this price is rare and good. Can’t judge the rest, don’t know it.
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Worth focussing on the last paragraph of that review, the system it’s being paired with and his conclusion about it being paired with a more relevant system to the cost of the phono stage.
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For a MM phono cartridge ideal loading would be 47k ohm. For many MC cartridges 100 ohms may be acceptable. Considering the budget and the likely tone arm a MC should not be considered.
I’m going out on a limb on this recommendation as the phono stage is used. This is a hell of a phono stage under $1k, and at is price is a steal. Beats the pants off anything you may be considering. and will work with any MM cartridge. It can accommodate MC, but it’s strength is with MM carts:
If you think this would work for you, don’t hesitate as it will not last at this price.
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Here’s another great little phono stage from a Internet Direct manufacturer that’s been a sponsor over at Audio Circle for a long time. I used one for several years quite happily in my main system before moving to the Gold Note. About as flexible for loading and gain as you can get for $399
My initial idea was the $129 Schiit Mani, per suggestions from this thread. Then stumbled across the Vincent and was attracted to the two box scheme and love sales in general. The Absolute Sound review said it’s colored a bit romantic, which is fine by me. I’m far from a purist and liberally use the Roon equalizer. I’m not clear how important the phono preamp is.
For instance, my current short list has the Fluance RT85 and the Rega P2. Fluance build quality and cartridge (Orton Blue) appear better - made in Taiwan at the same factory that makes entry level turntables for Thorens, Technics, Pioneer and others. Rega P2 has a better tone arm, platter and obviously a far longer vinyl tradition.
The Fluance RT85 with the Vincent preamp is $750. The Rega P2 with the Schiit Mani is about $800. I’m not sure how to quantify how much the presumably better Vincent preamp is vs the hypothetically better Rega P2 with a lesser preamp.
What’s better are my assumptions based on reviews. Obviously I don’t really know which is better. Steve Guttenberg did write that the Fluance build quality puts UTurn and the Rega P1 to shame.