Vinyl vs. top-notch digital


I have never had an analogy rig. My CD player is a Meridian 800, supposedly one of the very best digital players out there. From what I've read, it appears there is a consensus in our community that a high-quality analog rig playing a good pressing will beat a top notch digital system playing a well-recorded and mastered CD. So here are my questions:

1) How much would one have to invest in analog to easily top the sound quality of the Meridian 800 (or similar quality digital player)? (Include in this the cost of a phono-capable preamp; my "preamp" right now is a Meridian 861 digital surround processor.)

2) How variable is the quality of LPs? Are even "bad" LPs still better than CD counterparts?

Thank you for any comments and guidance you can provide.
jeff_arrington
Overall...I do belong to the "vinyl is superior" camp BUT there are times when one track, of one record, in one "incarnation" of digital based system will beat the same track, of a particular pressing, in one "incarnation" of a different vinyl based system.

In other words...Judging which sounds better must be done on a system to system , track to track, case to case basis. The heated arguments begin when we make blanket statements about unheard, unfamiliar systems, of unknown cd or vinyl pressings, of which we have no reference to be able to make informative and meaningful discussions and statements just dogmatic statements.

My digital front end is pleasing to listen to. I say this against the backdrop of my vinyl front end listening. But the pleasantness of my digital front end must be interpreted in the context of how each independent system of my system, ie, my tube amp, my preamp, my speaker cables, etc, is contributing to the final "digital" sound i am hearing.

To date, with the best moments of my vinyl playback i have not been able to get the quality of timbre from my digital front end that i get from my vinyl front end. On occasion, if the vta is out or the recording is just ok, then the virtues of vinyl sometimes seem "awol".

To sort through this maze of differences in outcome, i prefer to judge on a case to case basis as listed in the first two paragraphs of this post.
Decade old thread resurrection seems to be en vogue these days.
Unique, obsessive audio topics are becoming rare now?
i notice a few 9 year old posts from me in this thread. my digital is much, much better now, but what's crazy is so is my vinyl much, much better now. 

and better vinyl (even sometimes but not always digitally sourced) is still easily better than the very best digital. but the very best digital is now super good and streaming has opened up so much music that digital is really amazing.

so it's now 'best sound' verses best way to listen. i have top level vinyl, but mostly listen to digital. i follow the music.