That does noting for me, but I did own one of these Clearaudio units. The Unify unipivot arm was a real pain.
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You are not that impressed with the sound of your Champion Level 2 turntable?
Clearaudio arms sucks. That is why it’s better to use an arm by a specialty arm company like Graham. Their Goldfinger needle is not too shabby though. Enormous soundstage and limitless detail.
Or SME. I have the 3009 …
I’m going to wade in on this, having had this digital-vinyl debate more times than I can remember. Let’s get grounded in reality, first. Excluding the phono stage, my educated guess of retail for that Techdas/Acoustical systems setup is somewhere around $70k. That doesn’t include any of the other paraphernalia such as a RCM, alignment tools, etc. necessary for analog performance at the level being described here. Reasonable proponents of digital that I have encountered, by reasonable I mean those who don’t make absolutist claims about the superiority of any format and yes they’re out there, argue with some validity digital can approach (although not necessarily exceed) the performance of an exotic and breathtakingly expensive front end like this for a fraction of $70k+ minus all the intense effort in setup and the like analog at this level demands. Convenience often comes up in the conversation … as in proponents of digital will point out they spend more of every day listening to music rather than fiddling with the hardware. I chose to pitch in on this simply to point out digital proponents have valid arguments, including not so easy to dismiss objections to enormous cost that gets us into lottery winner territory. I see where they come from. When I look at my own modest system, I continue to maintain digital and analog have merits specific to those formats that audiophiles, depending on individual taste and priority, can favor without getting into a ‘all the other formats are inferior’ mode.
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SME is good, at the dealership they had the SME V5 with the Clearaudio Master Reference TT and Koetsu Blue Lace cartridge. Sound sublime!!
Nothing wrong with the Champion Level II turntable, just the arm, and the Unify was their top arm at the time. The Level II/Unify comes as a package, so I sold it.
I went completely the other direction for an Origin Live Illustrious, which is dual pivot, 12" silver wired. That’s me sorted, until I win the lottery and order their Renown arm, around $30,000.
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Ok, so no physical upgrade here, the system is unchanged, but I think my tubes are finally hitting their break-in window.
I accidentally left the amp on over about 30 hours the other day, since then the sound is measurably fuller, deeper and richer.
I thought it may have been a one off last night, but the sound is the same today.
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I understand when people get a little upset about such experiences. And I think we can agree on a lot of what you said, if not all. All I say is just my opinion.
Yes, the vinyl status where the above descriptions apply (and there’s no serious other disadvantage of an analog rig) is very expensive (but has not to be 70k).
Yes, in a quite normal (whatever that is) price range, things differ. Then pro’s and con’s of either technology are clearly audible and it’s rather a matter of priorities which to prefer. Often digital from an overall perspective wins (for me, many vinyl fans would disagree)
No, to get on a high level of digital, it seems to me, fiddling is quite as much unfortunately, as we can read in appropriate threads here.
So depending on what we’re talking about, you’re perfectly right or maybe unexperienced (assumed). What you say imo is definitely correct in a 5-20k source category. If you ever heard a state of the art, properly setup and standing 30-70k or more vinyl rig in comparison to the best digital setups and still say what you said, I have to accept that. If you didn’t make such comparisons, then you’re talking of something different than aangen, paul172 and I talked about. And then all are right related to what they talked about. The problem is, when people transfer their experiences to something they didn’t experience. Maybe you did, maybe you didn’t, I can live with both 
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I never intended my words to mean anything like that. The experience we had yesterday started with digital. Very wonderful sounding music that made us all smile. It was coming from a $33k CD Transport though. My whole discussion was about top of the line gear we were treated to. I’m not going to try to top that system, and everyone in the room agreed that once we started spinning vinyl, we wanted to keep spinning it.
I have a relatively affordable Rega RP10 turntable that can stand up or exceed the quality of most digital. I also have the very expensive turntable. The sonic differences between the two may not seem worthy to some for the added expense and that is fine.
I am not saying everybody needs to think this or that. I’m saying wow! I had a chance to listen to some pretty special gear and it made a strong impression on me. It isn’t about competition and it certainly isn’t about spending modestly. It was more like test driving a Ferrari, when in fact there is zero chance one could afford it.
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I like the looks of the Red Vivid speakers.
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I no longer bother. It is all preference and experience. No format is superior or inferior. Pretending otherwise is argument fodder only.
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Well said. A good friend used to say there are no ugly girls. Some are prettier than others but none are ugly.
It kind of fits the digital vs analog thing. I have no interest in owning a turntable and records anymore so it is a moot point with me. It’s all music and it all sounds good.
I have been listening to Qobuz via earbuds on the laptop for the last 8 weeks or so and it was good to have.
I managed to put the system back together today and got the Sasha’s hooked up. Wow. Just wow. But if I didn’t have them it would be OK too.
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When talking about the technical medium, we must even say, that vinyl is for sure the worst one of all except cassette, the cutting and scanning process technically horrible. The format analog not as bad and partly seemingly catching more than digital (and otherwise less and less accurately) but also far from perfect. It would be ideal, if the information content of digital (not available on analog or purer than it) mixed with the information content of analog (not available on digital) could be stored on e.g. DSD without the shortcomings of both and played back digitally and truely lossless. That would probably be what we all prefer.
The only further problem is, with such improvement in digital technology, also every digital recording would have to be repeated with this improved technology to completely make use of it also on recording and processing level. Pure playback improvement wouldn’t do it, I’m quite sure.
I like this.
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So do I. Nice attitude to teach our children.
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Ferrari Corsa Red!
Everything sounded better than the majority of systems out there and it should have it cost more than most peoples homes! For me the analog was more organic and if it was my system I’d keep throwing the records on. I could live happily with CD’s or streaming also!
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And it’s absolutely correct…none is ugly! Way too much fun to listen to all the great digital recordings, no way to pass on all the music, That’s why I even listen more to digital than analog. And for itself it sounds really wonderful now.
But honestly…I like opinions. I liked it from ELK, I like it from Paul and others who are not shy with it, and depending on the topic it’s often not mine… I even liked dogmatic ones more than none and even the no go political discussions, even when strongly controversial. Life is so lala without opinions and quite straight talk
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Another thing to consider the difference between digital and analog are not as significant in most everyday systems! Enjoy the music!
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Nothing there can sound as good as my rig does, since I am here and not there.
I believe with some effort I can ghost write for Dr. Seuss. 
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