My recent experience with the Beresford Caiman DAC had whetted my appetite for the analog sound. The Caiman is indeed approaching, in many aspects, the high quality analog reproduction.
The trouble is, my old turntable got destroyed seven years ago in a flooded basement, and I haven't found a replacement yet. I've started thinking about it now, but before I do anything, wanted to double check one urban myth with the knowledgeable folk here: as the myth proposes, when the stylus hits the rotating groove on the turntable, the mass/velocity factor causes enough friction to heat up the vinyl which then melts and the heat warps and distorts the original grooves. Is that a fact, or fiction?
If it's a fact, how does that affect the quality of the reproduction? Our 'garbage in, garbage out' theory holds that, the moment you mess up the signal, what you get out of the speakers is, well... mess.
I've even heard that some audiophiles play their vinyl only once, while at the same time recording it onto a different medium (a reel-to-reel tape, or digitally). The theory goes that, when you're playing a virgin vinyl for the first time, that's the only time you're actually hearing the pristine, undistorted signal as it is embedded in the grooves. True?