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
Many thanks for all the advice and constructive feedback so far. I'm most likely going to hold on to the turntable for a while and see how much more performance i can extract from further tweaking. 

I'm facing quite a learning curve on the VPI tonearm though. I noticed that the entire tonearm can be rotated laterally, with 2 points where the tonearm seems to snap or click into place. Is this normal? If so, how do I know at which point the tonearm should snap into place?

Also, how fragile is the unipivot male bearing assembly and should I be applying any sort of lubricant/fluid? There is a section on damping fluid around the pivot in the VPI manual.

How about anti-skating? I know the general consensus seems to be a no for VPI arms.

Apologies, I realise I must sound really stupid right now.
As long as you remain on the learning curve(asking questions and accepting advice), you can’t sound stupid. VPI’s leadership seems not the care for anti-skating. I have no experience with your particular setup,  but- the VPI Memorial arm supposedly has a spring/coiled wire arrangement, that doesn’t detract from sound quality.
U-Turn audio tables are relatively popular around here with analog "newbies" as they're made in this area (Boston area), they sound great and are easy to use. They're popular in other places also, but hey...All of the esoteric heavy lifting involved with the Audiophile approach to vinyl simply confounds the general public and does nobody any good, although it keeps audio geeks entertained I suppose...I have a simple Linn I use whenever I feel like it, a good phono preamp with an outboard power supply, tubes...blah blah...but recommend U-Turn stuff to anybody who asks because it might get 'em to listen to all that great vinyl out there, and isn't that the fun part?
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I was really just too lazy to bother dumping or selling my old LPs I accumulated while growing up.  They sat at my mother's place for years so they were available when I decided to re-visit them.