cmdc
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If I read the original post correctly, there are two (and perhaps three) very different questions embedded in it. They generate three very distinct answers. I have 7 turntables, including a Rega, and a variety of digital sources from mundane to high quality. I will add to the discussion what I can.
1. Does the ZP3, and other Decware gear, pair well with vinyl generally? In my experience, the answer is "Yes, beyond doubt." I've used the ZP3 with multiple turntables, including most recently, two Thorens TD124s and a TD125, all with excellent results. The ZP3/TD125 combination delivers the best sound I've ever gotten from a truly outstanding table, particularly when it's coupled with the Caintuck Audio Lii F15s. The same was true for a decidedly more modern ClearAudio Champion. The ZP3 also performed well with the TD124, though I ultimately replaced it with a battery powered Dodd Audio phono stage that was more forgiving for MC cartridges.
2. Does Decware gear pair well with the Rega RP 6? While I don't have an RP6, I have tried the ZP3 with other Rega gear and would echo others that the Decware gear does perfectly well with it.
3. Most importantly, should you make a bigger investment in vinyl?
From your description and your comments, probably not.
For my own part, I love vinyl. No matter how I've tried, and what digital sources I've used, I have yet to find digital sources that can do for me what good vinyl does. The presence, the clarity, the holographic soundstages, the feeling of having the performer right in the room with you, and the sense of the original performance venue itself materializing around you--I have never gotten that from digital sources in the way I have from vinyl, even when everything else in the signal path is the same--or is ostensibly optimized for digital. As a result, and despite constant experimentation, vinyl is the medium that makes me happiest.
But it is also a constant pain in the ass. Getting vinyl right means worrying not only about phono amps, and tubes, and speaker placement--just like everybody else--but about tonearm resonances, cartridge matching, step up amplifiers, overhang, alignment, vertical tracking force, vertical tracking angles, headshell and tonearm connections, and the endless quest for ever better cartridges. Then you add the process of keeping both the records and the stylus clean--more machines, solutions, and (surprisingly endless) debates about gear and techniques.
The sound can be spectacular. But getting and keeping it right can become expensive and time consuming very quickly, and can play to the most OCD aspects of audiophilia, if you aren't very careful.
So, if you were at the beginning of your audio journey and considering experimenting with vinyl, I'd say go for it. There's nothing to lose but time and money. But if you've been at this for a while already, and are already a bit hesitant about taking the leap, my guess is your instincts are right. Vinyl will add more costs, more headaches, more obsessions, and maybe (just maybe) at the end of the day, a little better sound. But in time you take getting somewhere truly new, you could have just been listening to music.
My two cents as a true vinyl lover.
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