Sex, politics, religion ... analogue vs. digital: they're all guaranteed to draw a response - and should be avoided during pleasant dinner conversation.

But since the BBQ has cooled off, the friends have all left, and I'm feeling a little game with a dram of some very fine single malt in hand (a 21 year old Springbank) let me offer an opinion.

All else being equal, I'll take the digital version any day. Less noise, greater dynamics, much more convenient.

I like vinyl. I play several albums each month. But I choose to play several times more CDs than records. The records still sound good. CDs sound much better.

I've always said that the two biggest sources for either improvement, or degredation, are right at the input or output stages of the process. Great speakers and superb digital source material: nothing else in between will make as much of a difference.

That being said (and given that is a "950" thread) I must admit that the various processing modes available on the 950 are breathing new life into my old vinyl collection (and CDs for that matter). Yes I like to listen in "stereo bypass" mode to most of my records, but many of them take on a whole new life using PLIIM+CR and other such modes. It's getting me closer to those live performances by Frampton, and Supertramp, and the Stones, and Bowie that I attended in my (and their) younger days, than I've ever been able to do in my own home.

CD over vinyl. DVD over laserdisc over analogue tape.

But to each his own.

Jeff Mackwood