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
@geoffkait 
'The future is here!'

Well, there you go. I don't waste much time going through used cd bins, because most of what you see is mid price and budget price reissue crap. For example, where I live you hardly ever see full price first edition Decca cd's. Perhaps because they cost a small fortune when they were released and dealers give the same for them as those cheap reissues, which is next to nothing.

This makes me think about those cute little Japanese mini LP sleeve cd's, which seem to appreciate in value the moment they are deleted. In CD wonderland, those are the best investments you can make. And sonically they are usually miles ahead of the US and EU pressings, even when they use the same masterings. To be honest I have no explanation for this. Do you?

No, I don’t have an explanation, other than the SHM CDs use superior materials, I.e., Super High Materials SHM. If they have secrets they’re not sharing, Japanese releases of classic rock LPs were/are outstanding, too. In fact, Japanese equipment, from headphones to Sony Walkman, to Isoclean and Furutech fuses and other tweaks, like Audio Revive, etc., tend to be outstanding in every way.

I know relatively young people getting into vinyl and cassettes.  Seriously. they are grabbing up used cassette decks and the tons of used cassettes at thrift stores and loving them.

relatively inexpensive turntables and vintage receivers with decent internal phono stages are what I'm seeing younger people grab up.  Just the other day, I had to show to 20 somethings how to clean the tape heads on their cassette deck.  They had no clue why the sound was muffled.  teaching them about tape decks and degradation of tapes was interesting. 

Also, telling them about the best tape decks out there and to grab them if they come up cheap was also fun.

enjoy

Japanese cds’ shape is also more accurate, more round, more symmetrical. With cds it also starts with ’turntable’, with mechanics.
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