Boppin’ with The Beatnik – Moving from LPs to Digital

I talked to Adam LaBarge, our editor, the other day and told him how much I like his new weekly column, “Out Last Week.” We decided I should do a bi-monthly column, “Boppin’ With The Beatnik.” It will be short and mostly about what I’ve been listening to on Qobuz or DSD recordings.

For the first Boppin’ With The Beatnik column, I want to talk for just a minute about the move I’ve made from an all-vinyl source to an all-digital source.

I think most of you know that because of my failing eyesight, it’s been necessary for me to make a huge change in how I listen to music at home.  Over the last three years, I’ve worked on building a digital system I could enjoy. You might remember an article I wrote about a year and a half ago, “Thoughts from The Audio Beatnik: Goodbye Sweet Vinyl.”

I’ve listened to DACs that ranged in price from $2,000 to $30,000. I was pretty much sold on Innuos, so I moved up to their Statement.

My Vinyl System

For your information, my vinyl system included an AMG turntable with two tonearms. I used DS Audio cartridges and a mono cartridge. It had a retail value of a little over $50K. All of the cables were Audience frontRow.

I considered this to be one of the best vinyl systems I had heard, and I loved to listen to music over it. 

My Digital System

After three years of comparisons at shows and at home, I purchased the Innuos Statement Music Server (reviewed here) with a two-terabyte solid-state hard drive. I also purchased their PhoenixNet Network Switch (reviewed here). I was very surprised that the DAC I chose was the PS Audio DirectStream DAC (reviewed here). I so wanted to choose one of the tube DACs I auditioned in my home, but I have to admit that this was partially because of how beautiful they look. After much listening, I concluded that the PS Audio DirectStream combined with the Innuos server is simply the best in my system. Again, all of the cables in my system are Audience frontRow (reviewed here). This system with the cables runs a little over 30K. 

Things I Miss about LPs

I have to confess that there are some things I miss about LPs. The thing I miss the most are the album covers. I miss the artwork, and most of all I miss the information on the back covers. Yes, most of that information is on the internet, but it’s not very enjoyable to have my computer read it to me while I listen to music.

Of course, I also miss the way most vinyl sounds. I just want to say that on about 30 percent of the albums I listen to, I am aware to downright disappointed in how the digital version sounds. 

I especially miss reviewing LPs and turntables. I also miss tonearms and cartridges. To me, turntables are the crowning glory of an audio system. From a simple-looking Linn Sondek to a silver and gold TriangleArt turntable, they have all been part of my audiophile life. Setting them up, dialing in the tonearm and cartridge, I miss it all. There is nothing in my digital system that I interact with as I did with a turntable system.

This may sound silly, but every time I see an ad for a new turntable, my first thought is that I can’t wait to review it.

Things I Like About My Digital System

There are some things that I really like about my DSD system. I have to admit that DSD sounds just as good as vinyl, and some recordings sound even better.  I discovered 22 years ago when I was trying out SACDs how much I love the sound of DSD recordings.  There just wasn’t enough music that I liked on SACD to justify the expense of a “state-of-the-art” SACD player.

These days, I find that there are many more DSD recordings to download than there used to be. The sites I check out regularly are Native DSD, High Tape Transfers, HD Tracks, Blue Coast Records, and PS Audio.

Many well-recorded PCM files sound very, very good and do not cause listener fatigue on my system. I don’t choose to take up space on my hard drive with PCM downloads, especially the ones that are hi-def, because I find that they sound better with the Innuos Network Switch. This saves precious room for those huge DSD files that sound so wonderful.

I love streaming. The Innuos Network Switch improves the sound to make it very enjoyable. The ability to find so much music at my fingertips is a miracle would have never dreamed of in my analog-only years.

Even though I miss vinyl, I find myself enjoying music as much as ever on this system.