Alan,
I agree 100%! It WAS a real hassle messing with all the variables on turntables - but what fun we had debating over (and messing with) direct drive, belt drive, tonearm shape and weight, base resonance, stylus design, MC vs MM cartridges, platter cushion, gel filled feet, dampening the LPs with weight, and remember ALL that gerat Discwasher stuff! anti-static coatings. Super high density antistatic album sleeves! Man I could go on!
But now we argue over things we have NO direct control of... jitter, DA/AD conversion rates, bitrates, bitstreaming, single vs dual (or triple) laser pickup, etc. etc. etc. At least in the (good?) old days we had a DIRECT influence on the sound (bad as that may have been) Oh well, its fun to remember all that, but I really prefer the ease of the CD too!
All the best
Randyman
