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

Vinyl is much too expensive to last, but the only thing that can beat it is reel to reel which is also expensive.

Vinyl will live as long as the people who are willing to pay those high prices live.
When digital photography was limited to 4 to 8 megapixels, "purists" said film was better; despite all the many disadvantages and expense of film and film processing. Now with 24 megapixels being the standard, nobody (hardly) argues that film is a better medium. Same with vinyl. Though I’m not sure why it came back at all, other than being retro-cool, soon most vinyl aficionados will realize that it just isn’t worth it to put up with the long list of reasons of why digital audio is so much better and convenient.

I’m currently living with family as we transition from Austin to Dallas. All my gear is in storage and yesterday I was listening to music on a cheap Bluetooth soundbar streamed from my phone. I was tapping my foot, really enjoying the music, when I realized (once again) it is so much more about the music than the equipment.
The rare and difficult to transfer correctly acoustic recordings prior to 1925 are currently not streamed and in the future, will require someone other than the owner of those recordings in 78, LP or CD format to permit or actually do the transfer to streaming or other digital format. 

I have many ethnic recordings which also have very limited copies issued and could be lost forever if reliance were made for convenience only. 

My hope is that future generations learn music history and performance, learn how to perform musical instruments and vocal technique and not squander the incredible musical intelligence of the past several centuries.  Civilization will be greatly diminished otherwise.
@dynaquest4
When digital photography was limited to 4 to 8 megapixels, "purists" said film was better; despite all the many disadvantages and expense of film and film processing. Now with 24 megapixels being the standard, nobody (hardly) argues that film is a better medium.

You can go on instagram to realize how many young people taking pictures on film today (simply follow tag #filmphotography). You may never understand why they don’t need your 24 megapixels when the instagram picture size is limited to 2048 x 2048 pixels maximum and the actual size today is just 600 x 600 pixels. You can not upload your huge digital file on facebook, it will be compressed like those mp3 digital files people are sharing. Those huge digital pictures are for your home computer or for the actual prints in the frame on the wall, but not to share online on social media.

All digital pictures became cool ONLY after analog filters became popular, those digital filters simulate the analog film effects, some of them are stupid (like default instagram filters), but some of them like VSCO Cam® are really cool. People who never really took any picture on film enjoying analog film filters for digital photography. Withoiut those filters digital phogography for majority of the people was extremely boring. Because of the instargam and companies like VSCO Cam® (and related) who developed apps to make digital pictures looks like analog film we have popularity of instagram etc woldwide. Now everyone is a "photographer", film photography is extremely popular in Japan as much as Vinyl in Japan. This is the county who invented DIGITAL, so what ? 

Those huge digital cameras are for professionals in fashion industry, but normal people are on iPhones. But actual film photography is not dead at all, many professionals still prefer analog film, many amateurs are happy to take pictures on cheap film cameras, because it’s unique experience for artistic people.


Same with vinyl. Though I’m not sure why it came back at all, other than being retro-cool, soon most vinyl aficionados will realize that it just isn’t worth it to put up with the long list of reasons of why digital audio is so much better and convenient.

Vinyl is like gold, it’s not only the best media format that lives longer than the actual owner, but it’s an investement, the price for rare records goes up every year. If you don’t understand why "it came back at all" the record collectors know well what they are doing, they are getting rich every year with their favorite music on original vinyl, they can buy/sell/trade it with a lot of benefits compared to digital.

Your digital media is free to enjoy all kind of music online in the car or in the cell phone streaming all albums in mp3 right from youtube without paying anything for it. We already have all that.

Vinyl is just something more, no matter how good is your high-end digital set up. Vinyl is highly collectible, this media for vinyl lovers is not just about fidelity like for audiophiles, it’s a culture that you can not replace with digital crap, never.