You are happy with both your high quality Digital front end and your Record Player. How much do you use the latter?

james n posted:

kevin J Carden posted:

james n posted:

How many Vinyl albums have you got Kevin ? Might be worth hanging fire until you've heard the ND555 ??

ND555, or even DAVE is exactly what’s in the back of my mind James. However, there is that genre of of music I described earlier that I’m not convinced will ever sound as good digitally as I heard it rendered today by LP12. I have about 700 albums, of which maybe 400 I’d like to hear ‘done properly’ again (my NDS sounds impressive, but isn’t authentic to my ears). 

But you are right; I don’t think LP12 will replace my streamer for Classical which is more than half of what I listen to (though I’m prepared to potentially change that view ) nor will it be format of choice for modern recordings of other kinds of music. Interestingly, Peter played me Adele’s ‘Hello’ today to illustrate how even modern recordings can sound great on Vinyl. Yes, it did sound good, but whilst smoother, it didn’t match the visceral experience of how I’ve heard that sound at home on the NDS. Impact and emotional charge was a notch or two down for sure. So this is definitely going to be an occasional indulgence. I’m just trying to determine how occasionally is occasional I think. 

Ah understood - that's quite a collection so i can understand the desire for a top flight deck to enjoy them again 

Indeed James. but, hence the uppermost (ish )  budget of £5k. Gotta leave some room for dreams of either a better streamer (of whatever persuasion) or some Titan speakers..

Not a top-flight streamer.

TMS/Artemiz/Shiraz/Artaxerxes 40-50%

NDX - 20-25%

Nova 30-35%

Approx 1,600 digital albums and 1,000 vinyl

The Nova figures are skewed by the fact I love the view from the room it’s in.

Analogue:  5% (Michell Orbe & some 750 or so LPs )

CD: 0% - I sold my CD player some 3 years ago and have never regretted it.

Internet Radio: 10% - mainly Radio Paradise or Radio 4

Streaming: 85% - from both my own NAS and Tidal

My RCM is out of commission at the moment. When I repair or replace it, I suspect that my analogue listening percentage may rise to around 10 or 15%)

Background music - either FM or Radio Paradise - during the day.

When playing back from the music collection:

Streaming: 60% (I no longer own a CD player)

LP: 40%

LP12 upper mid spec - 98%

CDS3/XPS2 - 2%

Chris Dolan posted:

LP12 upper mid spec - 98%

CDS3/XPS2 - 2%

Thanks Chris. Upper mid spec?  Hmmm. Enjoy!

LP12 Akurate 90%, CD5XS 10%. Vinyl only in my home office where I do most of my listening, so probably the split is somewhat bigger than if both sources had been in the same room.

I quite liked the ND5XS that I had (which was not as good as my LP12SE, but it was certainly something I was happy with).

However, after realizing I only listened to it once in a blue moon, I downgraded to a Bluesound Node 2 for digital.

Hi Kevin,

Most music I hear is in the car, driving to & from work.  It's a long drive of 90+ minutes.  In this case, listening is 30% radio 4, 50% radio 2 and 20% streaming of ripped CDs from the iphone (which has by far the best sound quality)

For good quality music while working, it's 30% streaming new albums off Tidal, 70% ripped CDs via the mac mini & DAC-V1 office system.  Despite its mid-fi budget, the smiles per track are simply brilliant with this little system.

For serious listening, it's 95% vinyl via the Vertere turntable, 5% CDs via the Naim CDS3/555PS.  The turntable digs out so much vibrancy and texture from each note that music sounds much more alive and engaging via vinyl.  This ratio despite having circa 3 times as many CDs as vinyl records.  The TT is so far ahead of even this outstanding CD player, that I'm looking to find a streaming solution that might narrow the gap.  It's a gap that is obvious to everyone who visits the house for a listen.

Happy listening, whichever source you finally settle on.

Best regards, FT

Foot tapper posted:

Hi Kevin,

Most music I hear is in the car, driving to & from work.  It's a long drive of 90+ minutes.  In this case, listening is 30% radio 4, 50% radio 2 and 20% streaming of ripped CDs from the iphone (which has by far the best sound quality)

For good quality music while working, it's 30% streaming new albums off Tidal, 70% ripped CDs via the mac mini & DAC-V1 office system.  Despite its mid-fi budget, the smiles per track are simply brilliant with this little system.

For serious listening, it's 95% vinyl via the Vertere turntable, 5% CDs via the Naim CDS3/555PS.  The turntable digs out so much vibrancy and texture from each note that music sounds much more alive and engaging via vinyl.  This ratio despite having circa 3 times as many CDs as vinyl records.  The TT is so far ahead of even this outstanding CD player, that I'm looking to find a streaming solution that might narrow the gap.  It's a gap that is obvious to everyone who visits the house for a listen.

Happy listening, whichever source you finally settle on.

Best regards, FT

Thanks FT. It’s your serious listening I’m interested in. I also spend more time listening to Sonos radio and ripped to MP3 CD, Spotify and car audio, but that is of necessity and it’s backdrop music to something else that I’m doing. Fine for convenience and still enjoyable, but I’m thinking about your serious listening time. 95% Vinyl is pretty conclusive..

If I pick out the last week which was pretty average and not counting our little Roberts DAB which is on always

75% LP12

15% Tidal 

10% Ripped CD's

Both Tidal and ripped CD's were for convenience sake but for real listening pleasure it is 100% my LP12 and if time was never an issue I would listen to it all of the time.  If I had to use one word to describe the difference between my digital and analogue front end it would be BASS! No digital front end I have ever heard ever did bass like an  LP12.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

Dave J posted:

Nick Lees posted:

It’s an old Valhalla/Ittok with a Denon MC cart. For many years I’ve preferred playing CDs because they’re handier and I preferred the sound. Plus, I became allergic to ticks, scratches, pops, general surface noise and I got fed up getting up every 15 minutes or so

Then Hugo came along and came damn close to the CD555 and was even more convenient. And the DAVE blew the lot into the weeds soundwise.

I’ve heard a (I believe) a very close to maxxed out Swained LP12 on many occasions and it’s extremely  good. But not as good as the digital (Linn) player it shares a system with.

I occasionally get the urge to play the LP12, so keep it, but I’m struggling to justify keeping the CD player.

Possibly a system not far from here?

 

Dave, you’re a prime candidate for my poll. Uber LP12 vs KDS. What do you listen to?

Love your 606’s btw. Just reproduce the quality of what’s fed to them. 

For me it's...

70% CD555, 25% LP12 and around 5% Nat05. However, when I listen to LP's I seem to get hooked on them for several nights.

Since upgrading to the Tidal Camira DMC DAC the "fully loaded" LP12 doesn't get a look in. Before this the KDS was on-par with the LP2, but now there is no comparison. High-end vinyl does sound better, more organic and more engaging than digital but the costs are high.

98% digital files (just about daily). 2% Vinyl (on very special occasions)

Receiver (Tycho)

Thanks

Rick @ Musicraft

I know the member info may give ones age,but I would be curious to see how that shakes out on this question. At (almost) 64, I consider myself one of the last generation(s) not truly computer literate (granted some ppl. are,but they had to learn rather than grow up with it. Anyway 40% radio (not always my nat5),25% and increasing with upgraded lp 12, 35% cd5. I barely know how/what can be done with streaming other than tremendous increase in variety. With unlimited$ would add streaming, but realistically torn between that or upgrading existing system 52 or 282 or 252 (sigh - decisions decisions)

CD555 - 90%

LP12 - 10%

Those figures should not be interpreted as an indication that I prefer the sound of my digital source. I enjoy listening to vinyl occasionally as something completely different. I find that a vinyl 'fix' is can be a bit special and really hit the spot when I'm in the mood for it.

Do you have any vinyl Kevin? I wouldn't get into the cost of buying a relatively expensive/high-spec LP12 if you do not have an existing collection of old vinyl. A lot of new releases of the pop/rock genre seem to be of debatable pressing and sound quality to me.

That said; the likes of Discogs is an excellent resource for building up a collection of good (old) vinyl. I recently paid £15 for a very nice copy of Bad Company's second album 'Straight Shooter' (1975) and it's a corker.

Us vinyl-heads bless those lovely people who are dumping collections of great stuff onto the market every day.

Good luck.

John.

Dave J posted:

james n posted:

How many Vinyl albums have you got Kevin ? Might be worth hanging fire until you've heard the ND555 ??

Or, if you liked what you heard with the LP12, you might have a listen to a KDS. Hmmm, that might be interesting.

I think I am a strange bird to this debate.  Like Dave J - Uber spec LP12 and current spec Klimax DS.  Software is 7K albums and 3K ripped CD's.

Last month Linn finally (after several years) natively integrated ROON into the KDS  (for the last year I have been using an alternative method for ROON integration).  For listening I just sit myself down in my easy chair with a tablet in hand - look at all of the records on the shelf - and then rummage through my ripped collection on the tablet.  Lazy perhaps?

Demo a KDS - even a Renew version.

When I want to hear something new, it’s either iRadio or Tidal via the NDS. That’s about a third of my listening. For music I own, vinyl is usually my first choice. Overall, it’s probably pretty close to 50/50.

It used to be Vinyl 50 % and Naim DAC V1 50 %

Since Hugo and now Dave, Dave 90 %, Vinyl 10 %

for the car it is Mojo 100 %, I don't listen to radio, as Mojo sound quality blows FM radio into the weeds.

With stats like that it's a wonder you can call yourself "analogmusic"

kevin J Carden posted:

I’d be really interested to hear from any forum goers who have 2 or more top quality sources who would be good enough to share with me how much of your precious listening time you spend spinning Vinyl..

75% vinyl listening overall. I do tend to go in batches listening between vinyl and CD. Glad I have two sources, especially one that can play original all-analog productions from up to 60 years ago. For the record, I have a Rega RP6 TT and Naim CD5x. I wouldn't necessarily consider either a "top quality source", but I'm content with both.

kevin J Carden posted:

james n posted:

How many Vinyl albums have you got Kevin ? Might be worth hanging fire until you've heard the ND555 ??

ND555, or even DAVE is exactly what’s in the back of my mind James. However, there is that genre of of music I described earlier that I’m not convinced will ever sound as good digitally as I heard it rendered today by LP12. I have about 700 albums, of which maybe 400 I’d like to hear ‘done properly’ again (my NDS sounds impressive, but isn’t authentic to my ears). 

But you are right; I don’t think LP12 will replace my streamer for Classical which is more than half of what I listen to (though I’m prepared to potentially change that view ) nor will it be format of choice for modern recordings of other kinds of music. Interestingly, Peter played me Adele’s ‘Hello’ today to illustrate how even modern recordings can sound great on Vinyl. Yes, it did sound good, but whilst smoother, it didn’t match the visceral experience of how I’ve heard that sound at home on the NDS. Impact and emotional charge was a notch or two down for sure. So this is definitely going to be an occasional indulgence. I’m just trying to determine how occasionally is occasional I think. 

I know I’ve banged on about this before, but Hello has a dynamic range of 4 or 5 on digital formats and 11 on vinyl. So it sounds bloody awful on digital and is a good track to show you how big the difference can be. It won’t always be this extreme though. Hopefully, Peter told you that.

It is not uncommon to find these differences on modern popular and not so popular music.

I have an LP12 and an NDS. The LP12 is more likely to be used when I want to listen rather than have music playing.

Keith

I use my Stiletto LP 12, Aro, Armeggedon, Plateau, Kiseki Blue NS about 40%

Naim CDS / CDPS about 40% 

Naim Nat 101 / Snaps about 20%

As much as I love the CD player as probably one of best I still listen to the LP 12.

Regards,

Martin