Hi Steve,

Quote Originally Posted by Pigmy Pony View Post
I've followed this debate with interest, though the term "unstoppable force meets an immovable object" comes to mind for some reason
Lol - that's what happens when someone with a rather rigid, deeply-ingrained, belief system (and set of biases) is faced with considering something that challenges their veracity, by someone determined to make them do so!

Reason I've highlighted part of Marco's post is that it reads to me like spending fortunes on t/t, arm, cartridge, audiophile pressings, coupled with painstaking set up, can produce vinyl rips virtually indistinguishable from a shop-bought CD. Have I got that right, or am I missing something?
Yes, that's not really what it's about.

What it's about is that it takes a considerable financial investment [to pay for the necessary engineering], but more importantly, a LOT of experience/know-how, to get a turntable (and with it vinyl replay) to sound [note not measure] as 'accurate' as digital, by allowing it to overcome its technical limitations in comparison, in such a way as when you listen, you can't hear them.

Too many turntables sound like turntables, but in a bad way [in that you're left under no illusion that you're listening to a rock tracing grooves on a piece of plastic], because you can easily hear their limitations, due to a myriad of mechanical interactions that haven't been properly addressed or optimised, and as such the whole aspect of their performance is sub-optimal and distorted.

The best turntables simply don't 'sound' like turntables: they sound like 'digital done well' [quiet, clear, unfailingly speed/pitch-stable, sonically rock-solid and 'un-flustered', and exhibit very low-levels of audible distortion or coloration], but yet still retain all the best attributes of vinyl [including its inherent addictive musicality].

Essentially therefore, the best turntables, playing mint well-produced vinyl, aren't an audible 'victim' of their technical limitations - they simply showcase the music contained in the record grooves - and so unless you look up and see a platter spinning round, you could just as easily be listening to a very good CD player.

Hopefully that makes some sort of sense? And coincidentally, that's also why the best CD players don't sound 'digital' [in a bad way]!

Marco.