After a week or so of listening to LP records i have concluded the sound is acceptable and can be just as pleasing as digital, however there is not enough of a difference to justify the extra work of cleaning and maintenance of the media and the equipment. I can see if you are heavily invested in analog to stay there but it doesn't seem to make sense to switch from digital to analog, the convenience of digital trumps analog and the LP record sound is not better enough to justify the extra work. So the turntable goes. You can get a good sound from LP tech but it is a lot of work, i'd rather just listen to music than play with gear..
The next step is tape - i've got a high end sony deck with dolby S so i am going to make some metal tape copies and compare the analog version to the digital version. The final step will be to try reels when the Akai comes back from its refurb.
