For your well intended replies. You are all right in that, I don't necessarily have to resort to vinyl as a back up to tidal.
@Infiniteloop - Thanks for pointing out the SME. Will have to sell my house, if not my kidneys to get one
Do look superbly engineered. But to my eyes the Michelle looks a peice of art. A rare combination of the two things that appeal to me - engineering & art. Besides, the SME are priced way beyond consideration, so a easy decision in the end
@Insider9 - Even I have been using tidal to discover new music everyday. And I only buy tracks that deserve repeat playbacks. Hence my flac & DSD collection is very small. But worth every penny spent. Today morning I am wondering, if I was just over reacting to tidal's misfortune last night. And with a little help from google should be able to find ways to access other streaming sites too. And I do fondly hope that roon does add other sites to their suite, as it will be too costly a solution solely for tidal. So after much deliberation, I have decided to put my roon ROCK build on the back burner for now. Will run roon from my laptop for now. I will hopefully not need a dedicated roon end point, as the devialet AIR + roon wireless integration should work. Will consider a dedicated end point, if tidal does survive or if roon adds other streaming sites.
@ DougK, Andrewjvt & Plastic penguin - Really appreciate your well intended suggestions. I have been buying tracks from HD tracks that I like, costs me almost the same as buying an entire CD. A good quality CD costs me 15 pounds here. For the same money, I download just the few tracks that I like in the entire album. And save myself from ripping CD's again. The price difference between vinyl and CD is marginal here. With some CD's costing more than vinyl. So on the long run, procuring either will cost the same. And downloading from HD tracks is the cheapest high quality option.
The above running costs apart, the high initial cost for a vinyl setup is indeed a consideration. But the bigger evil that scares me, is the setup and actual use. If I can manage the latter, I can live with the former. Unfortunately, Michelle don't have a dealer in India, so a impulse purchase, as well as a demo are ruled out. will have to wait till my next trip to the UK, to procure one. So enough time to chew on my options.
But as you all have rightly pointed out, will first demo any good turntable that I can find, to decide if I really want to go down that route. As I have always had a digital sound, and analogue will be new to me. Better or different I have to yet find out. Thanks again