I don't disagree with you guys at all regarding vinyl sounding the best 'IF' the source is pristine. The downside to vinyl is that each subsequent play is wearing the grooves a bit, and after hundreds or thousands of plays (even if you meticulously clean it each time), they don't stay pristine. That being said, everything in the digital realm is simply trying to emulate what the music is originally...i.e. analog, so it's all about compromises. I have several thousand cds (many of them are EXCELLENT recordings of live shows, so vinyl isn't even a option). Gary, I hear what you're saying about listening to a CD as being 'tiring to your ears', and that was certainly the case back in the mid-80s, but the DACs have come a LONG way since then. I can still do with cds what I used to do w/ vinyl and it still sounds SWEET over and over again... it's all about the system. Rob, my primary speakers are vintage Polk SDA 1.2s (170 lb towers w/ 13 drivers each) with each tower being driven by a 1000 watt amp (two amps, bi-amped left/right), so I know what ya mean. For convenience, I have 5 multi-disc players (total capacity: 1300 cds) all w/ digital connections to my preamp (again, its all about compromises). I built this system several years ago (before many of todays options were available), but everyone that's ever heard my system is amazed. As far as compression goes, there's absolutely nothing inferior as long as it's 'lossless compression' (i.e. FLAC), as what comes out is EXACTLY the same as the original uncompressed source. (MP3 is another thing entirely however). Also Rob, when you say you use 'direct rip', what do you mean? Unless you're using EAC (or something similar), there is no way to guarantee that the copy is 'bit for bit identical' to the original. Again, due to the inherent limitations of the red book audio format of CDs (they do NOT contain any type of check sum algorithms), occasional 'bit errors' are in fact 'the nature of the beast'. As you might can tell, this stuff is also a passion for me, and we could debate this forever, but I'd rather discuss Steve Wong chips with Loren
. It's obvious we have a few audiophiles on this forum though. Caveat: my system is 'old school' with LOTs of power driving it, but I've also listened to a friends tube system driven with a whopping 17 watts of power that sounds awesome too. Bottom line, my system sounds fantastic and I never tire of listening to the music which is what it is ALL about imo (and NOT the technology)...