Will a $700 turntable outperform a CD player?

I’m retired, I have CDs. Are you talking about me?

@tooblue there is a difference between younger and older generation of people, strangely but VINYL format is widely popular between young people while CD (and CD players) are not at all (replaced by streaming and files long time ago). This is why i think that CD is for retired people (aka older generation). I also think that majority of audiogon posters belog to the older generation.

@b_limo I remember when CD became popular here, it was in the 90’s and at that time i had portable CD player, hi-fi Turntable and Cassette Deck. The CD sound was clean, but Vinyl was much more dynamic and more impressive even in my mid-fi system with average cartridge. In 95 I bought my first Technics SL1210mkII, sold all the CDs for vinyl, been using only vinyl and cassettes. Only vinyl for over 20 years now (with dramatically improved system).

It won’t if the other guy knows what he’s doing. If both systems are Untweaked, straight outta the box in an untreated room, who cares? They are both going to suck, relatively speaking of course. Everything is relative to something else. There is also the sticky question of what your preferences are regarding sound quality.

The first question I would ask is how many record albums vs CD's do you have? Used CD's are a lot easier to come by right now, but personally, I prefer the ritual AND the sound of playing a CD. If you are looking for a brand new, easy to set up turntable under $700, I would recommend the Rega Planar 2 ($675 everywhere - comes with a really basic cartridge) or the Pro-Ject 1Xpression Carbon Classic ($689 at The Music Room (tmraudio.com) - comes with an Ortofon 2M Silver cartridge). Good luck! 

I've been back into vinyl for a few years. While I do stream, I prefer the physical medium. That's just personal preference. , and that preference differs from day to day, and what kind of listening in doing. The more fixed I am on the music, the more I lean towards vinyl. 
     I still buy CDs both online and in person. But I prefer to buy vinyl in person for inspection , as my online experience has been more inconsistent than with CD. Also, if something originally came out in analog,  I tend to prefer it on that format. Jazz I prefer on vinyl, but classical on CD because of the noise floor. But I will buy jazz on CD still, as there is some superbly remastered stuff out there for much less cash than the vinyl counterpart. For me it's not either/ or, but having the ability to take advantage of the best option at the time. 
    Cheap digital, say at the 300 dollar mark, will almost always outperform a cheap vinyl rig. But overall, my best sound on my system is on my best vinyl, but that rig is 5x more expensive,plus the cost of cleaning machines and various accessories.  So good sounding vinyl is an investment and a labor of love. To me it's worth it. I'd do some things different, but I'd do it again. 
    Lots of good advice from previous posters btw. 
      
     

Vinyl is only as good as the software.I have a Audio Technica at 120 DD
with the Audio Technica AT-95 for which I added a upgrade stylus for 39.00.I also have a Grado F3E and a Grado Blue which I will fit into some new head shells.I say SACD beats both of those.I am still amazed at DSOM 5.1 on Sony SCD-CE-595 changer.No conversion done by my Marantz receiver being fed by 5.1 analog outputs into its analog inputs.