When CDs first came onto the market in 1982 .......

Sony’s CD-1 was the first CD player on the market...not much larger than the cd itself...I believe it was $300 .....used it for a few years and then upgraded when the market got flooded with cd players from every brand imaginable.....gave it to my nephew a few years later...Wonder if it’s worth anything today. CD’s had more slam than vinyl then and that extra bass really impressed alot of people. Cartridges today are so refined and inproved over the carts of the 70’s-80’s, that they are superior in their Musicality to many of today’s cd players.

It is a pity that it were so easy to compress digital audio files (loudness war) in a computer and then supply that to the CD pressing plants.

So most of the source material were therefore having lower dynamic range on the CD then on the LP.

That killed the superior CD and other formats that come along.

The LP is a physical copy protection when it is so bad so we can not get back what went in no matter it is coming from ANY TT and disregarding price no object. We will and can not get exactly the same signal what went to the cutting head on the lathe.

In computer science we can call LP for a lossy format (as MP3 were a example of a lossy format) and therefore a good copy protection. Record labels can and will supply source material to the LP pressing plants that is not as heavy compressed when nobody can do a one to one copy of a LP (that’s why there is in "Dynamic range DB" are LP releases that has a greater dynamic range than the digital counterparts it shows us that the record labels have NOT supplied the same source material).

Additional each step in the LP production process can only loose fidelity. Some few examples:

• Cutting head can not increase fidelity
• Plating of a father can not increase fidelity
• Plating of a moto can not increase fidelity
• Plating of a son (stamper) can not increase fidelity
• Vinyl formula can not increase fidelity
• Eccentricity (center hole not 100% center of the Grove) can not increase fidelity
• Wear of stampers first pressing is not the same as the last pressing from the same stamper. The same goes for later sons from the same mother is not the same as the first son. And of course the same goes for from father to the first and last mother.. can not increase fidelity just more or less bad.
• Then we have ALL the issues with playback when there is NOT any in the whole world of TT frontend that sounds the same when there is no defined reference playback. But that is logical when the final LP record is so far from what actually went into the cutting head. So it makes not more of a sense that the end user will anyway tweak the sound to their subjective liking. And that is probably a strength of the format. But has nothing to do with HiFi in short.

But I love my LP playback system when the same album will not sound exactly the same for each playback. And it is relieving experience in this digital world there computers can play back tracks over and over again until we get mad of it’s precision when it time after time always sounds exactly the same and without any variation whatsoever.

But it is of course a strength also depending on what someone wants to achieve.

Quad DSD CD's and the rigs to play them. That's what I am hoping gets to be ubiquitous and more affordable.

However CD density would have to go way up.

I think people were "blown away" by three things.  First, the lack of surface noise; second, the extended play time and not having to flip the record to the second side to hear a whole album; and third, doing away with the customary cleaning ritual needed before listening to music.   

Those seemed to be the primary advantages for CD at that time.  The simple utility of the media and ease of use were what convinced me to change from vinyl to CD.  I still have a Thorens TD 165 turntable in a box somewhere with a Stanton 990 cartridge on it.  Haven't seen it or used it for at least 35 years and don't care.