Here’s my (very simplified) take. My apologies if most of what I say has been covered. There are two major factors here contributing to what the OP has found.
1) Zu 103 is not a bad cartridge, but is a poor match with the VPI arm. Assuming proper setup in the rest of the analog front end and system as a whole, a more sympathetic, medium compliance cartridge with a more sophisticated stylus profile will sound MUCH better than the Zu on that arm.
2) To evaluate what good analog is capable of you need good analog recordings: either vintage records or quality all analog reissues of older recordings typically made prior to the early 80’s before digital recording became popular.
If the OP has only 50 records and listens primarily to newer music, he may be best focusing on digital as Raul just said above. If I only had 50 records, instead of the 2000 I have, 99% of which were recorded analog and are in mint condition, I probably wouldn’t start over with analog.
1) Zu 103 is not a bad cartridge, but is a poor match with the VPI arm. Assuming proper setup in the rest of the analog front end and system as a whole, a more sympathetic, medium compliance cartridge with a more sophisticated stylus profile will sound MUCH better than the Zu on that arm.
2) To evaluate what good analog is capable of you need good analog recordings: either vintage records or quality all analog reissues of older recordings typically made prior to the early 80’s before digital recording became popular.
If the OP has only 50 records and listens primarily to newer music, he may be best focusing on digital as Raul just said above. If I only had 50 records, instead of the 2000 I have, 99% of which were recorded analog and are in mint condition, I probably wouldn’t start over with analog.