Turntable got absolutely crushed by CD


Long story short, i've just brought home a VPI classic 1 mounted with a Zu-Denon DL103 on JMW Memorial 10.5 with the appropriate heavier counterweight. Had everything dialed in..perfect azimuth, VTF, overhang, with only a slightly higher than perfect VTA. Levelling checked. All good. 

I did a comparison between the VPI and my Esoteric X03SE and it's not even close. The Esoteric completely crushes the VPI in all regards. The level of treble refinement, air, decay, soundstage depth and width, seperation, tonality, overall coherence is just a simply a league above from what I'm hearing from the VPI. The only area the VPI seems to be better at is bass weight, but not by much. 

I'm honestly quite dumbfounded here. I've always believed that analogue should be superior to digital. I know the Esoteric is a much pricier item but the VPI classic is supposed to be a very good turntable and shouldn't be a slouch either. At this point I feel like I should give up on analogue playback and invest further in digital. 

Has anyone had a similar experience comparing the best of digital to a very good analogue setup?

Equipment:
Esoteric X03SE 
VPI Classic, JMW Memorial 10.5, Zu-DL103
Accuphase C200L
Accuphase P600
AR 90 speakers

Test Record/CD:
Sarah McLachlan - Surfacing (Redbook vs MOV 180g reissue)



chadsort

Showing 2 responses by larryi

Very good digital and very good analogue have distinctive sounds.  If you grew up being accustomed to one vs. the other, that might determine your preference.  When MP3 had become the the most prominent form of music storage/delivery, a professor did a fairly large study that showed that a large majority of younger listeners actually preferred MP3 processed music over music delivered at full CD resolution; familiarity breeds content(ment).

I agree with Al, and others above, that, if setup is the issue (and not just taste), the most likely culprit is loading.  A sound lacking in treble and having less "air" usually means to much loading (too LOW a value of the resistance in parallel).  I would try the cartridge with no loading or extremely high resistance value such as 47k ohms.  

To me, the reason to have both an analogue and a digital setup has more to do with available content than with one being better than the other.  If you listen to classical music, you pretty much MUST have a digital setup because there is essentially zero new recordings being offered as vinyl records.  Whether it is a difference in digital vs. analogue, deteriorating master tapes or differences in mastering (most likely culprit), reissued music from analogue tapes often sound not nearly as good as the original records (that includes expensive reissued vinyl); if you want the best sound, it is often the original issue.  Some original analogue records were pretty crappy sounding in sound quality and the digital reissues are superior because of better mastering (e.g., 1970's DG classical recordings).  
It really depends on what one considers as a "starter system;" at really low prices, digital players are vastly superior to cheap vinyl rigs which not only sound terrible, but also risk damaging records.  But, improvements as one moves up the price/quality curve for digital gear is less dramatic than is the case with phono gear.  The OP is placed quite far from "starter" with both setups.  

I would recommend that the OP first look into loading issues, and perhaps VTA--both are common sources of problems with shut in top end.  Excessive loading (too LOW a value for the resistance) and too low VTA, can cause this sort of problems.

Once performance is optimize, it might well be the case that the OP still favors the digital rig, probably because that sound is more familiar to the OP.  It may take some time, but, with setup optimized, the virtues of the vinyl sound may become more evident.  This is sort of a learning process and familiarity is important.  

I personally think both digital and vinyl setups can deliver great performance and I will not take sides in any sort of religious war.  I think there are far bigger differences when making other sort of audio choices: high power vs. low power amps, solid state vs. tube, electrostatic vs. dynamic drivers, planar vs. point source, and so on.