...because the cover art is decent size. Well, someone had to start somwhere!

Thanks for this forum. I'm no hi-fi buff, but I agree with buddy plant that you need a great pair of speakers to appreciate the live GD sound. I recently got a pair of Goodman's full range speakers with horns and they're in a box bigger than apartments I've lived in. The first thing I played was the Winterland 77 and it sounded so sweet and powerful compared to previous speakers (Bose 601s).

With the CD/vinyl debate, I worked in record stores for 14 years and have been collecting both formats and IMHO, some bands sound better on compact disk remastered with 70+ minutes uninterupted, others sound worse on CD and should only be played as LPs where 20 minutes is all you need.

I liken it to movies: some films must be seen on the big screen, others can 'live' on DVD/video - it depends. The GD need the big sound and Phil's bass and the drum sound to sound like drums. That's why i don't get iPods and the like,.

Here's something only slightly related. I'm suffering from some pretty substantial hearing loss (mostly self-induced, I'm sure), so my ability to discern music nuances has eroded significantly over the years -- which is why FEELING Phil's bass is so much fun.

I was talking to a guy who does ultra-high-end home theatres in Southern CA and in the course of the conversation I mentioned that what I needed was to have someone do a hearing test on me, then tune room acoustics and sound system to compensate for my defficiencies. And he said, "We do that! I test the hearing on each of my clients" and so on. Given that his cabinetry alone can run in excess of $100k, I guess it's only right. And I guess he's a little out of my price range...sigh.

So tuned to my ears...exactly how bad would that sound to anyone with normal hearing? Ahh, who cares, it's my sound system!

had our storage unit robbed and all my dead is gone....any help would work....any shows

Advantages of vinyl are not limited to decent sized cover art. Album covers are also ideal for rolling a number on whilst listening to the album. Probably the greatest difference between vinyl & CD is that - on a good system - an LP will produce a stereo image with much greater depth i.e. the sound stage is not only a left to right experience but also a front to back experience. I have yet to hear this adequately from a CD. The (allegedly) best CD's - gold ones, SHM ones etc. - go a long way to reproducing the "warm" sound of an LP but still lack depth. CD's score on durability as Patricia said and also on playing time. It is soooo nice to be able to hear "Live/Dead" in its entirety without having to keep changing sides/albums. As regards one's pride and joy, the sound system, I feel that the most important components are those that are used to transfer the signal acrss an interface. With vinyl, the crucial element is the cartridge which has to collect motional information from a wavy groove and convert it to an electrical signal. With all media the other crucial interface is where the electrical signal has to be converted to an analog waveform that travels through the air and into your ears. As such the speakers are probably the most critical element in a sound system. What happens between the cables coming out of the cartridge and the cables entering the speakers is much easier to get right. That is not to say that all amplifiers are equal, of course, even though the ideal is purely to amplify the signal rather than change it in any way.. Different types of amplifier will affect the signal in different ways. A class A transistor amp will generally produce a better output signal than, say, as class B amp, and a valve amp (typically class A) will produce a warmer sound than a transistor amp. I feel that the most important component in a CD player is the digital-analog converter. The biggest problem with all of this is getting a set of components where the whole system is greater than the sum of its parts and it performs how you want it to in your living space. To this end, I settled on a Koetsu Red cartridge (hand made years ago by some Japanese guy who is now deceased, so if it needs a new stylus I'm probably in trouble) mounted on an SME series V arm on a Pink Triangle PT TOO turntable, which is a poorly built but neutral and fine sounding turntable. For CDs I have a Theta Data Basic transport and Theta DS Pro Basic III digital signal processor with an additional HDCD board fitted. Next comes a Krell PAM 5 preamp and Krell KSA 100 power amp followed by a pair of Gale GS 401 A speakers. I used to have a variety of valve amps but they were so unreliable that when I moved from England to Holland I dumped them for the Krell. It is pretty good for a transistor unit and has given absolutely no problems in the 25 years that I have had it (a good thing, coz at 40kg I wouldn't want to send it off for repair).The Gale speakers are also old but fine. Not huge, more along the lines of a studio monitor. 4ohm impedance and good for at least 200W they can handle the power of the Krell with no problem. The whole system produces a warm but tight and crisp sound with excellent transients well suited to rock music, less good for classical (which I never listen to anyway). Bearing in mind that living rooms are generally "compact" in Europe, huge speakers, however desirable, are rarely an option. Electrostatics and the like that have to be placed 3-4ft away from the back wall are sadly just not viable for me - the furthest I can get from my speakers is about 16ft. So that is my 2 (Euro) cents worth. Whats yours?