Turntable got absolutely crushed by CD

Man, the hipsters are into pro audio.  They'll go direct from their phones to a pair of active studio monitors.  The extra cool kids have a two channel audio interface or a small mixing board so they can plug in their turntables, CD players, playstations, guitars and microphones.  They'll play whatever media they can get their hands on and plug into their boards.

@geoffkait 
'Less wobbling equals less jitter' 

It's true that Japanese cd's are better centered than most others. This is easy enough to see with the 'open' transport bay of my Bow cd player. Perhaps the player needs less error correction, because the laser has an easier job reading the disc. I remember reading once that error correction requires bit capacity. Is this what you mean?

So perhaps with eccentric discs 'more error correction equals less resolution', which might explain why Japanese cd's generally sound better. This definitely concurs with my own experience, even before the introduction of SHM material.

IMHO the Japanese must be applauded for single handedly creating an entirely separate world of truly collectable cd's. These mini LP sleeve cd's have superior sound quality as well as meticulous recreation of the original vinyl release artwork. Great stuff!

A couple of thoughts. Whenever I mention that vinyl doesn’t sound all that good I’m told, and rightfully so I’m sure, that its because my TT, cart and phono-pre are junk. And they are. But the thing is, so are the various CD players I’ve had plugged into my system and there is no doubt that through a reasonably high end system the CDs sound way better than vinyl.

So in order to hear the superiority of vinyl I have to spend a LOT of money. Do a lot of futzing and fiddling and secure the TT in some sort of meaningful way. To hear 90% (made that up) of what a CD has to offer costs next to nothing. Certainly a transport with a good DAC (which can have other duties) could exploit that remaining percentage and still cost a lot less that a high end TT, cart, tone arm, and phono pre.

I would never debate that vinyl may indeed sound superior to CDs to many many discriminating ears, I’m just not sure it would ever be worth it to me to try and find out. 

I even understand the collecting and enjoying the active involvement in playing vinyl.

Agree that there are CDs and then there are CDs. I spend a fair amount of time researching which $6 CD to get. It pays off. Just like it does with vinyl but at $6 I’m way below what you pay for even average vinyl and around 1/3 the cost of HD Tracks stuff.

CDs might be dying, but I’m enjoying a bonanza while they’re doing it.

edgewear, there are a number of variables involved in the physical CD itself that affect the sound. These variables are independent of the recording and the CD mastering. The physical CD variables include, but are not completely limited to, transparency of the clear layer, the reflectivity of the metal layer, the colors of the CD label, the accuracy of the CD circumference roundness relative to the spindle hole, the accuracy with which the pits and lands are placed on the disc during manufacture. The degree to which scattered background CD laser light degrades the sound can be affected by coloring the physical disc and or the disc player tray.

Perhaps, geoff...but, in my opinion, it is rare that any of these "variables" exist in sufficient magnitude to effect the audio signal sent to the speakers.  And, if they do, the human hear cannot detect whatever difference these "variables" might make.