I'm going to say something here.
Right now none of my TTs are plugged in. And nine CD/SACD playback machines are plugged in.
If I connect two turntables (one is for the better LPs; I always use two when I'm back); when I listen to my LPs, it is totally different than listening to my CD/SACDs.
Here: With albums (LPs) spinning, I listen more to my speaker's reactions, and my entire audio setup, including where my TT reposed, and all the small mechanical variations from the entire analog front end.
...And not because I want to, but because that's what comes through.
With CDs and SACDs (Stereo, or Multichannel), I'm now immersed strictly into the music.
The gear ain't part of the equation no more.
That's all, just the way it feels for me, and the way everything is right now in the year 2013.
...And for quite some time now.
My digital investment is way more than my analog one; and if I wanted to bring my analog performance to the same level as my digital one; I'd have to not only do a lot of work (setting things up properly), but also invest a substantial amount of time, money, and effort. ...I am fully aware of all my options, and I still keep visiting them, in my mind, but without the courage to pursue them.
I am simply too comfortably numb as it is in my digital world, with all my digital (0s and 1s) music.
Some audio stores in my neighborhood sell brand new albums; from $15 to $30 a pop.
I can also get some for a dollar each or so, from second hand stores, Salvation Army stores, Godwill stores, and at garage sales for even cheaper. ...Same with CDs.
I did all of this and all of that. ...At my own level of enthusiasm, and with my own free time and money.
What I do, what I listen to, and from which source, and my life's history; is not perfect, and is not the ultimate, bit is mine, and my own choice, own zone of comfort from my own music evolution through my own ups and downs.
I have the exact same respect for someone with a one million dollars analog rig than another one with an iPod.
Some people spend several $100,000 of dollars on audio gear alone (analog and/or digital).
Me I spend 100,000 of hours in listening to music. ...And that's where I spend/spent my money too (over half million dollars, easily).
I'm taking the easy route, and with the less complications as possible, plus what I analysed to be the smartest way in the remaining of my very short life now. ...I chose the heart, the soul of the music, the music itself, the new music that I'm still discovering every day, just like when I was twelve years old, and I invest my time there, where it counts the most, for me.
The more time I spend listening to music, the happier and more peaceful I feel. ...And the less complications about experimenting with new audio gear day in and day out.
We all know that with a TT you have to flip the record every twenty minutes or so, and we usually love doing that, getting up and work manually and smoothly deposit that tonearm at the right spot and look at that lovey looking spinning TT.
With a CD, you're good for at least forty minutes, and up to eighty (4 times more).
What does it mean realistically speaking? It means that more spiritual concentration is dedicated to the music, and not so much to the manual rituals.
I can keep up typing more realities of life regarding the analog and digital worlds we all live in, till I end up with an encyclopedia of my own; but I simply wont. ...Because for that exact same fact; I am simply too simple at this point in time in my music's evolution.
What I do I do for me first; after all it is my own life. ...And with all the devastation I endured in that life of mine, and with all the simple little things of joy I learned to see more clearly and appreciate over the years in my search for that comfort zone; I am finally at peace and at ease. ...I finally found my own essence.
My true source is myself, my family, my mother, my father, my brothers, my sisters, my children, my friends, the music playing in the now (Piano Jazz right now).