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
Dear @prof 1 :  IMHO there is a wide distance between sound lovers and MUSIC lovers and for the adjectives you used to explain sound characteristics in your last post for me you are not a MUSIC lover but a sound lover and nothing wron with that. That's what you like but please read this link:

https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/turntable-got-absolutely-crushed-by-cd/post?postid=1684132#16...

Btw, @millercarbon  perhaps you need to read it too.

Regards and enjoy the MUSIC NOT DISTORTIONS,
R.
If you are listening to say , Bach. there is a lot wrong with that !Rock matters not .

@rauliruegas

Dear @prof 1 : IMHO there is a wide distance between sound lovers and MUSIC lovers and for the adjectives you used to explain sound characteristics in your last post for me you are not a MUSIC lover


What rubbish. You don’t know me. There’s nothing wrong of course with loving sound quality - again if YOU didn’t care at all about sound quality YOU wouldn’t be on a site like this. We all care about sound quality here.

But the idea that I’m not a music lover is flat out ignorance on your part. Gee...I only grew up with a mother who was a piano teacher, a father who was a music teacher and jazz musician, our house had several pianos, drums, synthesizers, saxes, trombones, clarinets, guitars and more and we all played music. I played since I was young, played in bands for many years, and have had a voracious musical appetite my whole life, and I’ve continued to search for and order CDs and LPs from all over the world, especially when I get obsessed with a certain type of music.

So, please, don’t go telling me what I like or don’t like. It’s judgemental snobs like you that give audiophiles a bad name.

Hence it’s worth a repeat of my previous comment:

Prof: "Whenever someone says "there are music lovers and then there are sound lovers" you can bet they put themselves in the "music lovers" camp. It’s a sort of self-re-assurance one is in the more pious of the two camps because, really "it’s all about the music," right? :)"

Prof.

You stated above real words about what made your heart sing.  Raul show his hand again and again with his distortion, anti tube and even digital is the real thing stuff.

When a person grows up playing in bands and orchestras, they have real advantage of knowing what real music sounds like and feels like.  Most people just listen to what they like or told to like.

So it is nice that you brought the heart felt aspect into the equation.  The only question is how many people caught it or care.

Enjoy the ride
Tom