Will a $700 turntable outperform a CD player?

FWIW,

I have been running a Perfect Wave Transport and Theta Pro Basic III DAC. Took me quite a while to get the sound I liked.

I had not been playing vinyl for probably two or three years.

Anyway, I got my Technics LS1200Mk5  turntable and Audio Technica150 MLX cartridge set up and was surprised to the point of shock.

The DAC combo blew away the vinyl. The Technics seemed lifeless and with less detail. An Ortofon Pro S40 cartridge was even worse. It did not matter whether I played an old album or a new 180 gram record.

I was always been in the Technics camp but this was an eye opener for me.

Thanks for listening,

Dsper

@roberjerman     

Good to hear there’s other audiophile/guitar collectors. Pre CBS Fender and same era Gibson too?

Steve.

@cal91... streaming in like the internet jukebox at the bar. You can control it from your phone and you never have to get up to swap your cd or lp. You have hundreds of cds... I have Tidal and Qobuz which each have around 50 million tracks (yes there is overlap in the catalogs). You can play entire albums front to back or you can pick through and just play the songs you want. You dont even have to skip through the unwanted tracks unless you prefer to do it that way. You can just queue up the tracks you want to hear if you would rather. If at the end of the night you were particularly fond of your listening session, you can save the whole list and revisit it again later at the push of one button. You can listen to new albums before you buy the physical copy to see if you like them.  You can revisit old albums you don't own and you can explore deeper into an artists discography. 

I am a vinyl guy first and have much more money invested in my vinyl rig. But I also have a streamer and a DAC to fill in my collection. I can't imagine not having both. My Dad is about your age and after a year of saying pretty much the same things as you I finally got him to buy a streamer... He loves it. He is discovering new music which has led to more vinyl purchases. We send eachother recommendations on newly discovered albums. He will never go back. 

You really are missing out by not even knowing what you are missing (paraphrase of what my Dad said after the fact). Best of luck.

There is NO question streaming is the way to go to explore new music. The access to new (even old) recordings is amazing. Some streaming services are better than others. But hands down, for  variety and convenience, streaming cannot be beat. 

@guy-incognito

Thank you. You have convinced me that I need to look into it. I was in an audio shop in Richmond, VA where the manager was talking about streaming. I'll see what they recommend. I understand that some services have better SQ than others. Any suggestions?

@geof
If that's the case then maybe I could find the recording of Menuhin and Oistrack playing Bach's Concerto for Two Violins. There's a Youtube video but I've never been able to find the CD.