Analog Corner

The last time I visited Rega, back in 1998, vinyl was struggling. The company was still manufacturing turntables and phono cartridges at its facility in Westcliff-on-Sea, in Essex, England, in an old mill that Rega founder Roy Gandy had converted in 1980 to a hi-fi factory and offices.

We interrupt our regularly scheduled analog programming for this important message: Shunyata Research's proprietary DTCD Analyzer finally proves that power cords, power conditioners, circuit breakers, even fuses measure differently, and that perhaps these measured differences are what audio enthusiasts hear when they swap out these elements in their systems.

Other than for archiving and iPod use, is there any good reason to digitize vinyl playback? Pure Vinyl's Rob Robinson thinks so. His software offers RIAA and dozens of digital-domain equalization curves that he claims are inherently superior to any analog-domain filtering.

The vinyl revival was bound to produce a backlash. On February 10 2012, Science Friday, a weekly NPR program, ran a segment titled "Why Vinyl Sounds Better than CD, or Not." Both guests said "or Not" without really explaining why. The show made me even more crazy than usual.

The latest product from Graham Slee is the Reflex M ($1240). Like the company's previous designs, the lightweight Reflex M is housed in a small aluminum case and is powered by an outboard 24V DC power supply. RIAA equalization is applied actively within the negative feedback loop.

AnalogPlanet.com has gone live. Allan Toussaint should title an album. Elvis Costello should write a song. I'm running the website, and will continue to write this monthly column for Stereophile, as well as equipment reviews (though fewer of the latter).

I recently spent a week traveling—it was good to get out of the basement! First up, toward the end of May, was an event at the Audio Alternative, in Fort Collins, Colorado. Owner Rick Duplisea is a vinyl fanatic and Linnie whose store—actually, his sprawling home—is packed with gear and LPs. His record collection beats mine.