I have been at this for 22 years and as many times as I have "This is stupid, this is stupid!!!!" I find myself out listening to the B&W 805 D3 on a Saturday wondering whether they will be superior to my Revel's (I concluded that I am not sure but they are definitely a bad match with a PrimLuna integrated amp). Then I was introduced to the Verity Finns which were amazing incidentally.

Your thinking that in the conversion from analog to digital that a file might lose something. If you think about a recording that was mastered in analog and then converted to digital, in that scenario they should sound exactly the same. In practice, this doesn't seem to be the case. Most of us agree that analog does sound better than digital and this is even common outside of the audiophile community. That means one of two things - the actual playback (needle scraping on record, tape dragging across tape heads) adds something to the sound or to conversion from analog to digital loses something or the DAC is incapable of retrieving it.

The two reasons one seeks out digital over analog -

1) The original clarity argument - analog requires some care and a lot of media sounds like crap due to poor care (dust, scratches, bad needles, scrapes) and secondarily, a lot of analog equipment is absolute crap. Think about how many awful turntables were sold and even worse cassette decks.

2)Convenience - you can't jog with a turntable and cassettes were annoying as you had to play them in order or fast forward/rewind the track you want. CDs and now digital files are just undeniably more convenient. This would be why you would convert an album to digital. It is cheaper to convert a record than it is to buy a second, digital copy.

One other note about the "timing and pacing." PRAT (Pace, rhythm & timing) generally is referring to a particular sound profile of punchy midbass, forward upper midrange, underdamped response, and fast decay. I am not saying that the descriptor makes sense but generally any equipment that is described as having strong timing and pacing usually does a great job with jazz music. Also, in fairness saying "timing and pacing" is much shorter than punchy midbass, forward upper midrange, underdamped response, and fast decay.

David Harper wrote:

...I was considering converting some vinyl to files.I have a tt with a USB output, so it should be easy.

There is a principle associated with computing, where on one end of the spectrum you have "ease of use," and "power" is at the opposite end. Furthermore, as designs strive/gravitate towards one, it is at the opportunity cost of the other.

I say this because while I am sure that your USB-capable TT may be the easiest way to digitize your music on vinyl (especially your rediscovered collection of obscure bluegrass that never even made it to CD back in the 80's!), I'll go out on a limb and say it it ain't gonna sound similar.

If you want more insight in to getting the best possible, digital copies from your vinyl, check out these two links:

http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/486-guide-converting-analog-vinyl-digital-files-using-windows/

http://avantgardeproject.conus.info/mirror/analog.htm

Speaking of the Avant Garde Project, I strongly encourage you to download some of the digitized library to see if that SQ would be worth the effort.

SPOILER ALERT: If this effort was easy for you, you likely didn't do it right!

Happy listening... (and digitizing)