It's finally got to me - analogue fever.
After decades of being a hard-line digital fanatic / CD-worshipper, I have seen the light and returned to my first love, the place where it all started, the mighty and oft-maligned (by me!) LP record.
And yes, it is that hoary old chestnut, the inescapable audiophile staple, played-to-death, heard-it-soooo-many-times : Supertramp's magum opus 'Crime of the Century' that has provoked this revelation. I have had just about every CD remaster / reissue of this classic - longing for an edition that would bring back the spine-tingling teenage shivers I experienced with 'School', 'Bloody Well Right' and Dreamer'. And it has taken me to a bog-standard, old but well-preserved and secondhand vinyl copy to achieve this. Back to square one and wondering "Why the hell did I ever leave?".
Then I put on 'Crisis? What Crisis?' - and a wave of nostalgia washes over me, this was the very first 'rock' album that I ever really listened to. At the age of 12/13 I had a cassette copy of this that was played incessantly, needing to soak up every note, word and inflection. This was new, this was music!
I have spent (too) many thousands of pounds/euros and agonising hours acquiring a seriously large CD assortment - basically to replace and expand on the (2500+) LP collection that I sold off when I moved to Holland. And I have been pretty successful in doing that, (digital) Hifi has also improved dramatically along the way and everything was fine. However, the better the CD and Digital playback became, the more I began to realise that I was trying to recapture that 'analogue' feeling and my choice of DAC shows this. The NOS models have a roundness and fullness of sound that oversampling DACs lose in favour of a drier and more 'accurate' character. The Metrum Musette, Teradak Chameleon and, now, Denafrips Ares II have all played a part in building up a desire for the 'analogue feel'. The obvious next step? Analogue itself.
So it was back downstairs to the old NVA amps and Arcam One speakers that I have now had for 35 years, turntable on and it sounds marvellous to my digitally-orientated ears. So I am revelling again in Alan Parsons 'Pyramid' and 'I Robot', Jean-Michel Jarre, Mike Oldfield, Camel, Saga, OMD and other life-changing LP's that I had never realised I would want (need!) to own again.
Ah well, 'Easy Does It' as they say.
![Very Happy :grin:](./images/smilies/icon/biggrin.gif)