2. analog
  3. 140184-113812

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
prof
3,473 posts
 
edgewear,
Perceptive and well put!
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
Yes, it’s chasing the dragon to some degree. A lot depends on one’s objectives and where one decides to get off the merry go round. When the early settlers moved West a lot of them decided the hardships weren’t worth it and decided to settle in the Midwest. 😛
imgoodwithtools
236 posts
 
I know I'm about a year late on this thread, but only recently have I had an experience to contribute. 

I've been all digital for over 30 years. I decided to buy an entry level turntable just to plug it in the system to see how it would compare. I bought a used Shinola Runwell table and mounted an Ortofon 2M black cartridge on it. I hooked it to my preamp with Cardas Clear interconnects. 

Results? Clicks and pops and surface noise. But the musical reproduction was shockingly close to my $35K digital CD rig. For 10% the cost. 

Now I am unclear how to proceed toward better sound. I do have a great SACD player, and Yes, SACD is slightly better than state-of-the-art CD, to my ears.
I am limited in the titles I own in both vinyl and SACD, so an investment in software is a given, no matter which way I choose.

So, can I get better sound investing into a high res digital system? Aurender comes to mind, doing digital downloads. Or $35K into a vinyl system? Turntable, arm, cartridge, and phono preamp.
audiotroy's avatar
audiotroy
3,779 posts
 
Imgoodwithtools,

We are familiar with both sides of this coin.

It is possible to get digital to sound like the best analog but it really matters what your setup is. We have heard a few really amazing digital setups, the T+A SD 3100/Innous Statement or the Light Harmonic Davinci are like really top of the line analog front ends that will beat most CD players.

We just picked up a turntable that has completely blown us away, so much that we are going to be importing this table, it is called the Onkk Cue, we are running our Cue right now with a $1k arm and a $3k cart and the sound is absolutely amazing.

Right now in our shop the Onkk is even more electrifying than our best digital front ends, the issue with analog is that so many front ends are difficult to use or to setup.

With your digital it depends on what you are using and how it is setup, it may be easy to improve your digital by changing cables, or by adding a server if your CD player can be used as a dac. 

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ


imgoodwithtools
236 posts
 
As far as CD digital goes, I have a Berkeley Audio Design Reference 3 DAC fed by a PS Audio Directstream transport through a Synergistic Research Galileo AES/EBU cable. I have a T+A PDP 3000 HV for SACD play. The Berkeley rig surpasses the T+A for CD, IMO.

If I was to pursue high res downloads, one option would be to consider an Aurender product to feed my Berkeley DAC.
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