Sound that is electronically pure is not necessarily a pleasant thing for our ears to receive. Digital players sending sound out to speakers with Kevlar cones may be relatively flawless, but the richness of the sound to the human-ear and the pleasing sensations we feel in our bones from analog machines channelled through paper cone speakers is most of the reason we could tolerate a crackle, pop and skip now and then. There is so much more resonance and fullness of sound that we enjoy as human receivers of sound signals than any digital medium can appreciate or successfully produce that I would go so far as to say that young folks today, who don't have the privilege of growing up around old-fashioned adults who expose them to vinyl and turntables and magnetic tape, have no idea of the power well produced music and will certainly never understand why we old-timers cling so dearly to all that raspy music from the good ol' stylus and groove days. I have a direct drive AR turntable with a wooden base and records that are more than 40 years old, played regularly in their time, and still in excellent condition. I play them once in a while just to remind myself that the digital age, though it allows a medium that makes sound extremely easy to create, record, capture, manipulate, mass produce, share, distribute and store, and may produce a machine's idea of pure sound, it doesn't measure up to analog and acoustic ear candy.