Tima, for me a big part of my evolution has been to try and get analog and digital to converge.
That's meant finding digital with the density of good analog, and critically the ability to tonally differentiate between cds.
My Eera Tentation does this better than any other cdp I've heard by a long chalk, and maybe is only beaten in absolute terms by Mike's MSB Select 3 box.
My analog has fallen way behind my digital 7-8 years ago (Michell Orbe belt drive/SME V arm v my Emm Labs CDSA SE at the time), esp in terms of rhythmic snap, bass control and mids clarity, and so I looked for a tt that could get more neutrality in my sound, but not at the expense of natural warmth and bloom/decay.
I demoed an SME 20, TW AC3 and Brinkmann La Grange, but despite many impvts, they didn't go far enough, and at this point I felt maybe it was belt drive that was the reason. I'd been following Mike's Rockport and early NVS experiences, with reference to stylus drag etc, and investigated modded Garrard 301s and Lencos and suddenly I got a taste of what I think I was missing, a "certitude" of pinning the message down, as opposed to a vaguely imprecision of intent, ie the meaning of the musicians loud and clear as opposed to just the usual audiophile checklist of detail, imaging etc etc.
I heard this in the Garrards I listened to, but it was best represented in the frankly ludicrously underpriced Trans Fi Salvation rim drive tt and Terminator air bearing linear tracker, that obviously gave me yet more positives, bass with no overhang and a real sense of realistic air and speed.
All with none of the slight euphonic warmth I hear in idlers like the 301.
So I now have digital that snaps at the heels of good analog with great warmth and tonal discrimination, and analog that back in London triumphs on digital territory of neutrality, speed and bass cleanliness/impact.
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Now this effectively means I'm set for life, which I am. But I am fully aware belt/string drive still brings advantages to the party in terms of lower noise, better microdynamics, better shimmer and natural decay, and my analog is more matter of fact here.
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What I have to work out is whether something like the Spec, with its string drive transmitting torque from a big motor output to oversized flywheel effect maxxing platter will replicate most of what I currently have and add a dose of hard to live without non idler/rim delicacy and filigree quality, that it's worth the paradigm shift away from idler/rim again.