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Re: M. Fremer on "Digital disaster", suggestion to Stereophile

The music delivery system is now base on convenience and very little else. We must admit that the CD has come along way thanks to huge improvements in ACD and DACs. Just as in vinyl there are those who try and produce the best equipment and software so we can enjoy great and not so great performances.

To me the issue as I play much vinyl is that a $1000 CD player does sound better than a $1,000 TT rig, ie Music Hall MMF 5 and and say a Monolithic Sound or Black Cube phono stage. I think the MMG5 is great bang for the buck. Both formats are still left with software issues in which the quality is all over the place. The fact that for the $1000.00 you can also thrown in pretty good SACD playback is very nice.

We who play vinyl get over all that we must do in terms of record cleaning, cart allignment, cabling, and phono stage selection...it is a lot. We must enjopy doing it as it is an intrinsic part of the hobby. The only thing I can do CD wise is change cables or change out the 12ax7s in my Jolida CD player. The average person would ask why do I bother? They are happy in MP3 land and have probably spent more on their car stereo than their home unit.

I just picked up some used vinyl from a moving "give-a-way" and most of it was trash and going to the dump. Some of the classical discs were like new and worth the trip. Once cleaned they were excellent. No one does this but vinyl nuts like us.

A great turntable is an engineering marvel and the fact that the TT market is thriving today is remarkable. I truly believe it is the likes of people like Michael Fremmer who have kept it alive and helped us get the most out of vinyl playback. The fact that he lives in Simon Yorke land with a Manley Steel head with well over $20k in his rig tells you how much you have to spend to hear all that vinyl has to offer.

I would love to have a head to head with that and the DCS "P8I". AS much as I like playing vinyl, my money would go to buy the P8I every time. The best vinyl has to offer these days is $20-$50 a pop and certainly probably worth it if you own a truly great TT system. I might lunge as high as the SME 10 but that would be it. There is just not enough new releases in vinyl to make it worth my while to get real nutty over it. At least any more than I am.


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