2. analog
  3. 140184-113812

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
Post removed 
tomcy6's avatar
tomcy6
2,587 posts
 
Is that not how this thread started??
Yes it is. We’ve got 10 pages of posts accumulated over almost two months. Do we need to start over again, or have our positions on that been pretty well aired? I don’t want to stifle debate, though. Feel free to tell us what your opinion is on the topic. Mine is both can sound very good and very bad. Listen to whatever brings you enjoyment.
dynaquest4's avatar
dynaquest4
445 posts
 
"Well, I had owned over 8000 Classical LPs..."
Goodness you owned over 2600 pounds of (just) classical records?  If stored correctly that would take 266 feet of storage space - almost a football field in length.  Or stacked eight rows high would still be a storage area  33 ft wide.  And that is just your classical discs.

I thought you lived in an apartment, Elizabeth?
prof
3,473 posts
 
Edgewear, that’s your diplomatic way of putting it, but there are clearly two distinct camps here; "sound lovers" and music lovers.


I disagree.

There’s no such clear distinction IMO.

First, everyone is here due to some level of interest in or devotion to the technology portion of sound reproduction. That’s why you or anyone else is on a site devoted to discussions of the technology.

And the degree that one focuses on the technology part, or the "sound" of a system, won’t vary in some hard edged way among members: there will be a spectrum, a continuum, not some obvious divide. In fact, I’d say for many if not most of us, we will go through swings even individually - some periods were our attention is mainly on the music (maybe once we hit some period of either fatigue with vetting new gear, or we've reached some level of satisfaction), and some periods where we are back concentrating on the technology.


And we always care about the sound to some degree, at least when it comes to our high end systems...that’s why we are here!

Whenever someone says "there are music lovers and then there are sound lovers" you can bet they put themselves in the "music lovers" camp. It’s a sort of self-re-assurance one is in the more pious of the two camps because, really "it’s all about the music," right? :)


prof
3,473 posts
 

I've continued to purchase many (obscure) vinyl albums from the glory days of analog recording and I am so often gobsmacked by the sound!It can be utterly glorious, in a unique way that I often don't get from my digital source.  It exhibits the texture, body, spaciousness and richness that makes my heart melt.   Digital is still great, but it seems I now sometimes have a need that can sometimes only be met by a great vinyl album.
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