And at the time of that post XXHighEnd was virtually lousy sounding (which at that time we found *very* good).
But as time goes by ...
Some three weeks ago I have been listening to a couple of 20K-30K turntables with 4K pickup elements, and I must honestly say ...
The vinyl guys just don't know what they are missing ...
Suddenly they have an enormeous set back.
I have planned some more explicit comparison sessions (a.o. with the fameous mr. Van den Hul who lives 300 meters down the road), and as far as I can be objective, I'll report back.
About above mentioned set back ... of course I should be more explicit, but since all was heard through a for me unknown system, I think it is dangerous to point out specifics. I can say though, that where everybody was raving about what they heard (tenths of people visited this "national pick-up days" as how the sessions were called), I really couldn't find a reason to.
One of the most remarkeable things I noticed, was that playing an expensive turntable seems more difficult then ripping, tuning your PC and all. If there's not unsolveable hum from the beginning and 10 people scientifically working out how to route the earthings, then there's airflow noise from air-bearing tangential arms. Hahaha.
Browsing LP's smelled nice as usual, but it's really no way of finding your music. Not for me, not anymore. But that's another matter of course.
More from me (many weeks) later.
Peter