You forgot one. The ClearAudio Statement piece. Not as expensive as the Goldmund, but still impressively ridiculous

As with every arrogant, clueless idiot writing on a subject about which he knows less than zero, the writer makes an unknowing fool of himself. This is an assemblage of turntables, some brilliantly engineered, some just foolish eye candy, that the "writer" uniformly derides with snide comments because he has his head up his ass and that's clearly his comfort zone. Go to Gizmodo and read the story "Why We Need Audiophiles." You'll read about a kid who came to my place to write the usual audiofool ambush story, heard that Caliburn turntable and immediately understood what was achieved and that "old fashioned" vinyl makes CDs sound like crap. Of course the "writer" here doesn't have to actually listen because he already knows. He's a genius...with his head up his ass.

"That settles it. Instead, we'll hire a string quartet every weekend for the next 10 years."

I've heard this argument countless times, and it completely discounts the fact that Miles Davis, Count Basie, Duke Ellngton, Charles Mingus, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Carmen McRae, Shirley Horn, John Lennon, George Harrison, Jim Morrison, Ian Curtis, Kurt Cobain, and countless others ... are not gigging anymore.

Go ahead and hire your string quartet. I'll be listening to Miles' Sketches of Spain tonight on mint original vinyl and it will sound like he's alive and playing right in front of me. Tomorrow night? Maybe Thelonious Monk, maybe Chet Baker, maybe even The Doors or Joy Division.

For some people the expense of owning a machine of superlative ability is outweighed by the effect on their lives when the music coming out of it reaches past the ears and directly into the soul.

You can't get that from an MP3, kids ... not even from a CD, usually. Records and reel-to-reel are your only time-machines backwards.

Wow Analogcorner. Panties in a bunch much? As a working DJ I can tell you that ANY turntable costing more than $1000 is excessive. A simple Technics 1210 sounds just as good as one costing $100,000. Tables like the ones above are for rich people so they can feel superior. Sound quality is no better.

Wow! I had no idea that dinosaurs still walk the earth.

If anyone can prove to me anyone who can afford any of these toys can still hear high frequencies let alone the differences between a $500 turntable and a $100,000 one. As for a excellent quality CD on a quality player versus a vinyl record of course you can tel the difference the record has the skips and pops. They are just very small on a clean record on a good turntable. MP3s are just crap but portable.

Conceivably, these things could sound awesome.

Conceivably.

If it were played in an acoustically tuned room.

And all the records were in absolute mint condition.

And kept in a clean room so no dust could accidentally contaminate the record during playback.

And the records themselves were recorded and produced with only the highest-quality gear.

And your amp and speakers match the quality of your turntable.

That's a lot of conditions before you can really take advantage of a top-of-the-line audiophile turntable. Now, a serious hardcore audiophile would probably have the gear and the acoustic treatment necessary for a few of them, but...

No mention of the ELP laser turntable ($10k-$15K) which would not wear out your vinyl at all.

Hey, writer--there's no such word as "cajones"--it's "cojones"! Are you deriding the fact that these turntables cost money you don't have? Have you actually listened to any of them? With clean audiophile records? Electrically, a good MP3 is equal to playing a good vinyl, but as any audiophile can tell you, it's not aurally equal at all.
Don't deride things you don't understand, dude. You make yourself look foolish.

Hey, writer--there's no such word as "cajones"--it's "cojones"! Get a dictionary.

Are you deriding the fact that these turntables cost money you don't have? Have you actually listened to any of them? With clean audiophile records? Electrically, a good MP3 is equal to playing a good vinyl, but as any audiophile can tell you, it's not aurally equal at all.

Don't deride things you don't understand, dude. You make yourself look foolish.

analogcorner: Just had too mention the first four letters of your "handle".

'nough said.

It really comes down the the mastering phase of the recording. Yes, lossy compression messes with sound quality and spacial information. However, a DDD CD sounds better than vinyl if mastered correctly. At the beginning of CDs, the vinyl master was being dropped to CD and the quality stunk because the master needs to be adjusted to the media. CDs are brighter because they can reproduce the entire audio spectrum whereas an LP is limited at both the upper and lower ends (upper due to needle vibration limitations and low due to needle movement limitations and RPM). A properly mastered digital recording accounts for the full spectrum, starts at the top of the dynamic ceiling, and extends downward to capture all the sonics. Older tech hides imperfection, like the old RKO mics and mono analog recordings lose some of the breathiness of the old crooners so they sound "better". We make up for that in processing now.
True golden ears can hear the difference and account for them. As noted earlier, a properly designed and tuned sound system will sound better, and digital sound better than analog recordings if the digital was created properly.
Good will always be good and garbage be garbage. "Audophiles" who purchase golden goose systems are not about the music as much as the tech, and there is a good portion of PT Barnum when it comes to this level of audiophile tech.

The clearist example of the" Law of Diminishing Returns" I have ever seen .

You're exposing the vinyl records to the air, to light, and to variations in temperature. In time, these exposure factors will degrade away these platters no matter what you do to take care of them, short of taking expensive measures. After these records warp, get brittle and turn to dust, what good is a $300K turntable -- save as a museum piece, displaying the opulent excesses of our era's consumerism, catering to a very narrow slice of the socioeconomic strata that hardly used these items after they purchased them with a duke's ransom.

After having read all these comments, I discovered that noone actually came to the root cause that creates such a disturbance in the audiophile community. It has nothing to do with range, or money, or recording capability. Being there when the new technology came out, the greatest (and still greatest) concern is the continuity of sound. Digital is composed of 0's and 1's. It is limited by that very nature to the sounds it can reproduce. Analog, on the otherhnd can provide an infinite array of tones. The output of any musical device that is not digital (i.e. synthesizer) is analog. the nuance of a chnge from one not to another will produce a "skip" digitally, whereas the analog recording will match perfectly (considering recording techniques). For the average listener, it is about the same, maybe better since hiss, etc. is digitally removed. For an audiophile, imagined or not, there is no loss of tonal continuity. The cost of the player is almost irrelevant. as long as the tble continues t precise speed, the needle is sharp and well defined, a cheaper table will produce the same as a much more expensive one. Also, as stated, unless you have the equipment equal to the challenge (another few hundred thousand dollars) and perhaps play it in a tuned room, it is a lot of money spent for very little difference.

"As a working DJ I can tell you..." almost nothing useful or insightful about audio quality. Go back to sleep...

No musician ever heard music that sounded like the music these devices purport to produce. The meaning of music is the feeling of its message, not the finest nuance which cannot be discerned in its performance.

Those are absolutely insane!

I couldn't ever justify paying that much for a turntable. It's not that I wouldn't appreciate the sound but for me, I love a bit of gritty sound in each of the songs I play.