LP12 vs CD12, London Grosvenor

Went to the Hi-FI world Linn LP12 vs CD12 demos yeaterday. Interesting. They were using LP12,Lingo, Ekos Archiv vs the CD12. Linn amps (don't ask me what - sleek and expensive) and some truly massive active speakers that will be available in July. Basically 5 bits of music on CD and LP and we were asked to mark our preference on a card (which went into a subsequent draw, hence everyone filled them in!).

I left with the following impressions:

1. The LP12 was markedly superior in practically every respect - I took a hi-fi 'rookie' who agreed (and was amazed how easy the differences were to hear - he thought only hi-fi nuts could hear the difference!) and our glances at other's cards confirmed we were not alone. Given the CD12 is so good vs other CD players, I found this profoundly depressing. I only marked the CD12 better on one track (Madonna's American Pie) but that was the only vote for the CD12 I could see.

2. By far the best sounding track was the oldest - off Lou Reed's Transformer. The more recent the recording, the worse it sounded: I also found this profoundly depressing.

3. I was generally very, very unimpressed given the eye-watering cost of the system - genuinely preferred my own at home (as did rookie friend).

Anyone else go?

Steve