[Audio Empire]

On Wed, 26 Jan 2011 16:08:15 -0800, Robert Peirce wrote
(in article ):

In article ,
Audio Empire wrote:

Thought I's stir up some activity here. This place is as dead as a
sail-cat.
Most of those who contribute here seem to be of two minds with regard to
the
question of which is more "musical", LP or CD. There is also a third point
of
view (mine) which says that both have their place and both are viable music
sources and can be enjoyable.

You should have stopped here.

Not really. My point is how commercial CDs don't, generally speaking, provide
the performance that they are capable of. The LP was merely mentioned as a
reason perhaps why many people don't see the superiority of CD over vinyl,
and was really just used as an analogy.

Getting into which is actually better
just provokes arguments. The fact is I enjoy both, I suspect most
people would enjoy well setup vinyl playback using quiet sides just as
they enjoy well setup CD systems.

Again, which is better is not really the point. And I too enjoy both.

Recently, I have been loading my CDs into iTunes to use as a music
server. While doing that I felt the need to include some LPs. I used a
product called Pure Vinyl to do the transfers. I take very good care of
my LPs, some of which I bought in the late 50s. They are extremely
quiet.

I use iTunes and an Apple TV as well, but recently I got a Logitech
Squeezebox Touch and I think it is a better streaming appliance (especially
for Internet radio) than is the Apple TV. I up-sample the Toslink digital
from the Apple TV/Squeezebox Touch to 24/96 before feeding my
dual-differential 24/192 DAC.

Playback is via an Apple TV optically connected to a Peripheral
Technologies DAC which is connected to the balance of my stereo system.
That system, uses Classe electronics driving Apogee Diva speakers. It
is a pretty old setup but still sounds better than anything else I have
heard that I might reasonably afford.

Here's the interesting thing. I normally use iTunes DJ to play a random
selection of tunes from my library. Unless I happen to recognize the
piece as coming from a specific source, I am hard-pressed to tell if the
original source was a CD or LP.

You might say, well the iTunes system is inferior and masks the source.
Not true. When I play a CD or LP directly, it doesn't sound any better
(or worse) than playing it from iTunes. It is just less convenient.

Agreed.