Does Anyone Think CD is Better Than Vinyl/Analog?

Greetings and Happy New Year. I spent four years of research including trial and error and the purchasing of a variety of audio equipment in both the digital and analogue arenas. As you have indicated the source is paramount and budget plays a big part in results. I could report volumes of observations and conclusions that resulted in the opening of a Distribution company (Audioarcan).  Now I spend considerable time with clients that are asking the same questions as yourself regarding vinyl v/ CD/Streaming. 
Simply stated we have concluded that vinyl has the superior sound if one has the budget. Digital gives the better bang for your buck and offers unparalleled convenience and access to seemingly endless music. Our typical routine is to use streaming to research new artist's and albums using an excellent quality music player and DAC with  Roon/Tidal access. Then once we find an album we really like we source it in vinyl. 
Over simply put we found we needed to spend at least twice to three times the budget on TT, cartridges and phono stage amplification to raise above the digital offering. From my perspective well worth the investment. 
Hope this helps and happy listening - Audioarcan - Canada

As far as I'm concerned, I'm all for analog - - vinyl and cassette (I don't use reel to reel, too expenaive). But for classical music, I now prefer hi-res digital like SACDs and files. It would take a very expensive vinyl set-up to equal digital performance in complex and layered classical music. And the medium, vinyl could be a problem in itself. Take for example Beethoven's 9th Symphony; it's very hard not to get distortion near the end of the last movement even with the best cartridge, arm and turntable. It's the inner grooves. Can't do anything about it. 

Talking about 78's I just got given what looks like several hundred 78s! 
A person we know is moving out of his grandfather's house into a condo and in cleaning up and out he found these in a closet in the basement. He just wanted to get rid of them and I just happened to be in the line of fire:-) Just ordered an AT Vm670SP to play them.

I have no idea what happed to you antigrunge2. Maybe an older version of Pure Music, bad usb conversion. Lord knows. Michael Fremer uses the very same system and programming and is thrilled with it. The conversion the SPDIF and clocking are very important and the Alpha USB is special. My front end is entirely digital which may make a difference. In this day and age the only critical points are the USB conversion/clocking and the analog section of the DAC. Otherwise it is just numbers and numbers do not lie. 

As far as the Mac mini itself is concerned as long as you have a SSHD and a lot of memory there is nothing you can do to make it sound better other than up sampling which Pure Vinyl (contains Pure Music) does for you. But, the better sound is coming at the output of the DACs which can use better filters with the higher sampling rate. The DACs are on the other side of my preamp. Within the Mac Mini it is only numbers not sound. The Mini's DACs are not involved at all. The Alpha USB is important because it is clocking the data so the preamp can "understand" it. By all accounts it is superlative at this job. If I download a CD to the hard drive and sync the digital outputs of my CD player and the Mac Mini it is impossible to tell them apart. 
Other benefits are not only can you steam music but Movies, TV and You Tube. I can shop online while listening to music. I can listen to music samples on HD Tracks before buying, etc. All this at very significant savings over the Aurender. 

The answer of course is yes. I don't know any of them personally.

@dekay - CD stands for compact disc