That is interesting. A little discrepancy in recording approach. Very far from disinterested party, for sure.
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)
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)
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- 508 posts total
http://dr.loudness-war.info/album/list/album?artist=Rolling+stones&album=Exile+on+Main+Street I dunno about harsh but the 2010 issue is super compressed. Worst case scenario. That can’t be good. Whereas the early CD is relatively uncompressed. The Rolling StonesExile On Main St.1989 CD 12 10 14 |
@geoffkait Interesting observation. Not just cd players seem to be aiming at a more processed sound, recent cd reissues apparently go in the same direction. From an audiophile point of view this is indeed not good. All this manipulation of the datastream seems to squash dynamics, probably the only real advantage digital has over analog. Why? Perhaps because most people enjoy music through mediocre media systems and/or earplugs. Just as most record companies compressed their vinyl records to accomodate those cute little gramophones that were used in most households. Thankfully at least some audiophile companies like Decca, Mercury, (early) RCA, Blue Note e.a. were aiming higher and used as little compression as they could get away with. One of the reasons why these venerable records are still considered as a benchmark. Which begs the question: will we ever see an audiophile collector's market for cd first issues and pressings? |
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- 508 posts total