I have often talked of emotional involvement with the music as an attribute
I look for and had difficulty finding other than vinyl until SACD came
along. I had an incident this morning that drove the point home to me once
again.

I was working on a section of the system that I hadn't tested since last
reconfiguring the system. That entailed work with my reel-to-reel and my
"convenience" LP player, a Dual 601 belt drive system with a Shure Hi-Track
cartridge, which I feed through an Audionics BT-2 preamp into the one
remaining auxiliary input on my Audio Research preamp. After changing the
wiring, I put on my prerecorded tape of the Verdi Requiem. My intention was
to just test the connections, volume levels, before moving the system back
into place. I ended up listening to the tape all the way through both sides
(it has auto-reverse). Then I tested the phono system by putting on a
well-used copy of Walter's Beethoven Fourth Symphony. A favorite of mine
which I also have on CD. Again, I could not tear myself away and listened
to it straight through. And this was on a decidedly "consumer grade"
turntable system. (And BTW, these are pieces I have listened to on digital
media at least twice each in the last year).

I realized afterwards that in the days before I added cd, when LP's and tape
were my mainstays, this used to happen a lot when I worked on the system.
To the best of my recollection, I do not *ever* recall reacting to a CD (new
or old favorite) this way. I did have some of this with SACD, but even so
in every comparison I have done (mostly compared to LP's; in the case of the
Verdi to the tape) I have found the analog sound more compelling (in the
sense of drawing me into the music) than the digital media. I know this has
been discussed here many times, and I know that the objectivist contingent
scoffs at any such differentiation. I know also that for me it is very
real. One manifestation is my purchases. Over the past two years I have
purchased over 100 SACD's and over 40 used LP's. That accounts for more
purchases than I made of CD over the entire decade from 1992 to 2002, after
my CD system had become "listenable" and because of convenience, my main
medium.

I continue to wonder if the relegation of music to "background status"
during the last twenty years might not have a lot to do with this
phenomenon, often remarked upon by those who continue to find vinyl
compelling, and by SACD aficionados who feel some "link" in that medium back
to their analog days.

I'd be interested in others POV on this phenomenon.

I'd be interested if others here have experienced this same reaction.

--
Harry Lavo
"It don't mean a thing if it aint got that swing" - Duke Ellington