Having made the original transition from vinyl to cd's decades ago, I was never really impressed with the sound of digital. About 5 years ago, I moved from a bifrost and lyr stack to a Mjolnir 2 tube amp and a Gungnir multibit DAC. This was after spending time reading about why they came out with the multibit platform, and after reading a lot of reviews. I was skeptical about their claims that they were targeting redbook CD's to make them sound analog, but I bit anyway. It was a revelation. I was completely floored by how good all my old CD's sounded. Stuff that I had listened too for years sounded different. Mind you, I had ripped all my CD's to flac many years before this move and I run everything out of a tower PC that I built to manage my music library. Is it as good as vinyl? I cannot say, as I do not have any of that stuff anymore. But I will say this, my digital audio collection has never sounded better. I have since moved up on all aspects of my chain, but that first move back then was an epiphany. Digital can sound good.
I attended a listening session at my local high end retailer, where they were demoing Wilson Sasha DAW speakers and very expensive turntables, pre amps, amps and connectors. I would guess $150,000 worth of gear.
I was curious to see what the best vinyl could sound like. There were about 15 vinyl lovers, and some brought their best demo records to hear.
My bias: I gave up vinyl and CD years ago and listen to Tidal streaming (on decent gear). I kept my mouth shut as I suspected I was in the minority.
I was amazed at the 5 minute ritual one goes through to clean the record, and the needle, and trying to drop the needle on the start of the demo track. Then I was distracted by the snap-crackle-pop on the first album. The retailer said it had been played 3 or 4 times, and to expect some snaps. Then he spent 15 minutes explaining the challenges of setting up the cartridge and tone arm, and selecting a special pre-amp to match the type of cartridge.
The Wilsons sounded bright with great bass and overall SQ, but the retailer was playing at between 70 and 84 db (as per my iPhone app). I left after three tracks to avoid any further damage to my old ears.
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