Turntable got absolutely crushed by CD

I truly believe the OP did not intend this thread to be inflammatory, true the title could have a little less provocative, but rather they are genuinely dismayed that their analog investment so far is giving a sub par performance to their ears.

Now their has already been plenty of great suggestions as to why this may be and in fact it could be a combination of a lot of reasons, not just one.

I could say that the cart may not be the best match for the arm. Certainly I feel the phono stage is lacking if nothing else in range of loading but likely suffering from old age as well.

What does this mean?

Unfortunately the OP is likely going to have to spend more money to get it right ,but they will know when they do.

First try playing a different album, maybe a pristine cut from an earlier decade, one known for an exemplary performance and see how that stacks up.

Pardon me if I’m wrong, but is this whole discussion based on a test with a sample size of only one (the Sarah Mclachlan album)? If so, then we’ve really gotten ahead of ourselves here. You can’t make a global judgment about digital vs. analog based on a single example, and more importantly you can’t assume that any release made on both CD and vinyl will sound equally good in both media. On the contrary, i have found that contemporary releases that are digitally produced sound better on CD or HD download than they do on vinyl. Radiohead In Rainbows and Beck Morning Phase are two examples I can think of off the top of my head. In both cases I found the vinyl version to be disappointing compared to the digital download. In fact I’ve steered away from new vinyl releases altogether because I think they’re often overpriced and under-beautiful. And I’m someone who thinks that pound for pound (dollar for dollar), analog is still far better than digital when it comes to simple realism in musical reproduction.

For your test to be informative I think you have to do two things:
- use a number of releases and try to get older vinyl that’s well made and recorded. you’ll have to build a sense of the differences after trying a range of CDs and LPs.
- make sure your vinyl set up is a fair match for a highly regarded CD player like the Esoteric X03SE. I see no problem with your VPI record player, but I agree with the comments here that your phono stage (really critical for vinyl!) could be better, and also your test won’t say much until you have the cartridge loading set correctly for the Denon.

Sorry if this sounds like a tirade - it’s only intended as constructive criticism. guess the point is, analog takes a lot more work to get it right. That's one of the many advantages of the digital medium!  

A great Turntable has a very palpable presentation very deep soundstage and a vibrant presentation .that being said 
is you have a top quality Dac , especially a SE model or modified 
using top quality Capacitors and like the Lascala , or lampizader
tube  Dacs can give great Sonics the Esoteric se is a Very goodSS 
unit CD player myself like everything-on a Solid State Harddrive, no moving parts on a seperate dac .look at DCS if you can afford it
surpasses anything out there. I would like to mention Bybee has a 
internal4x 2 purifier  doublesided tape you put one in your digital, 
preamp,amp  incredibly good improvement just put on underthe top cover for under $150 each  makes digital  more analog or warmer and more depth.i was skeptical , No more !!

You are assuming that your CD and LP pressings are equal.  LP Reissues are lots of time inferior to original CD releases.  In any case, you’d be surprised how all over the place the qualities are.  I suggest using a wider range of recordings for comparison.