I don’t listen to vinyl purely for its sound quality. I love the physical media, artwork and to see something spinning when playing. Vinyl is jus very special in that way. I also love CDs for the same reason. I ripped my entire CD collection to harddisk. For convenience I stream the ripped files. But that sound quality is not so good as CD.
I also stream from the internet (Apple music) lossless. Great for exploring new music.
I see no reason why I should give up one way of listening for the other. I just use the source that fits my mood.
I have made too many improvements in my system since my analog days that I cannot give a fair opinion. Digital has improved to a point where I have no desire to go back to analog anymore.
I think one addition to @Rushton‘s meaningful answer could be, that the quality of digital files and recordings he rightfully spoke of, is still very limited in comparison to available vinyl releases and reissues of the quality he spoke of…and even more when related to general music available, independent of format.
Not everyone concentrates on those special, quite new and storage hungry digital releases as much as he does and not everyone’s taste and demand of music works (or has to work) with this musical limitation.
But also vinyl still has its music related limitations for newer music, which is why most music nuts (like me and probably Rushton) depend on even the inferior kinds of digital recordings Rushton described. It’s all about the music, right…
Yes, that is the priority for me also. And, as you point out, so much music is only available either in vinyl that will never be reissued in digital, or available only in lower res digital. When I look at our music library here, the vast majority is still only in standard resolution Redbook CD quality. Thus our focus on building a digital playback system that was of equal playback quality to our previous vinyl playback system. The higher quality DACs do indeed have better sound quality, just as do the turntables, cartridges and phono stages. Do less and you’re not hearing the quality of what today’s digital is capable.
I’ve been trialing Qobuz for a month. I’m a classical and jazz listener, I haven’t been impressed with its catalogue and recommendations. I’ve found Apple better for both.
Shame. I like to buy my albums (to pay the artists being one reason) and was hoping to get the higher res on Qobuz.
I’m contemplating downsizing my vinyl side substantially. I was listening to “Seconds Out” and there was some underlying rumble on the record that was barely audible that had my speakers vibrating in an extremely worrisome way. Seeing the cones move so much scared me enough to turn that particular record off and try something else. Although blown speakers could finally justify my move to Magnepans.
Maybe I’ll just keep the LPs for thumbing through as I listen to the digital versions. I dunno.
Sell! Market is great. I sold from high to low. Here, ebay and the Hoffmann site for anything audiophile or collectible. The remaining, generic. with some nice tossed in, at a local record store. It was fun and I made a lot of money….which I spent on new digital gear. Buy nice mailers for shopping!
Seriously, I’ve only seen speaker cones travel like that once before and that led to the magnet engine banging the back of the enclosure. It’s only the second record, but it’s really unnerving to see when there’s almost no discernible sound. I need to drag out a different pair of speakers and see if it happens with them too.
The Qobuz library isn’t big yet, but it seems to be covering off the new releases while steadily filling in the back catalogue. Fingers crushed it continues to improve, but for now you’re dead right about Apple. Soon, one hopes.
Mike does your phono pre amp offer a low, correction: high, pass filter? If yes switch it on the save your speakers. It filters out very low frequency rumble that does that to speakers. You should be kind to them even if you hope for Magnepan’s. I believe you have KEFs. They are gems.
I use the PS Audio NuWave phono stage, so, no filters to kick in. Which is fine. I’ll just not play that particular record with the LS50s. I have a couple other speakers floating around that I can try and see if they react similarly. It might just be hitting some odd frequency that causes the KEFs distress. It’s just so strange though. It’s a quiet passage at the start of “Cinema Show” and the woofer cone is vibrating at close to excursion limits; there’s no real sound. I should post a gif, but I’m already way off-topic here, so I’ll stop yapping about it. Thanks to all for the advice and thoughts. Miss spending time on here with everyone these days. :^)
I love the idea of downsizing. No more analog gear plus LP storage was a big plus when I went to the digital side. Today I own more gears than ever, and don’t get me started on all the cables I have hidden from my wife.
You will regret getting rid of your vinyl like I thought that my iPhone could replace my chunky Nikon D700 with Nikkor high quality lenses. I miss that camera system and I do I enjoy exploring, buying and spinning vinyl.