mohler@druxu.UUCP (MohlerDS) (06/05/85)
Dick makes some very good points in his posting!! I feel very strongly and have proved at home to my ears and to my scope that in some areas ultra-expensive analog front ends outperform CD players however, only in a couple areas! In the vast majority of measurement and listening test areas (noise, distortion, frequency response, wow, flutter) CD's will blow away any analog front end! I am sure I am in the minority when I say I bought a very high quality and very expensive analog front end after I already had a Revox CD player. I did this because I have the dreaded audiopile disease and I wanted the best for my many albums. The areas I have measured and heard superiority in analog front ends are: rise time (which is very important to preserve subtle dynamic differences) and relative monotonicity (distortion on an analog front end although higher than CD's drops subtantially at low volumes (CD's distortion increase with decreasing volume)). Also who needs to prove which is better right now? A person can have and like both for different reasons and if you consider how good CD's are now, just imagine what the future holds! After all LP's have been improved just a touch over the last few decades!! If one even begins to consider price CD's walk all over LP's !! I think it is only a matter of time before the very few weak areas are improved beyond analog. Just so no-one Flames my seat off, yes I have a good enough system and listening room to resolve the differences between the two and have LP's and CD's from the same master: Sheffield, Telarc, Mobile Fidelity, American Gramaphone and others! I suggest that we all find a group of subjects better suited to sharing information and less likely to spontaneously combust! I plan on submitting the results of some catridge comparisons and some speaker information. David S. Mohler AT&T - ISL @ Denver druxu!mohler