Classical music listening... what is a better source High Rez or Vinyl?


For many of us who really enjoy classical music, for me it is Baroque and opera, what is the better and more consistent for source high fidelity listening?

I am a mid hifi guy and have a Pro-ject Classic SB turntable with a high output MC Sumiko Blue Point No. 2 cartridge.. I am using a Jolida JD 9II Tube phone stage, with a vintage Telefunkin tube upgrade.

I have a Rogue Sphinx 3 integrated amplifier, with a vintage Mozada tube upgrade. My digital source DAC/SACD/CD is a Yamaha CD-2100 player.

I have refurbished Ohm H's loud speakers.

I have been picking up many vintage classical albums recently, mainly 1980’s releases in excellent condition too, at my local transfer station, and it has been mixed bag in comparison to my high resolution music files and SACD collection.

I was expecting much more when it came to vinyl and classical but I have not been as won over, as I have been with rock and jazz on vinyl.

My experience with SACD and high resolution, 96/24 or higher, has been very rewarding with a wide variety of classical music. Opera really shines in digital IMHO. Strong and full on classical piece are quite stunning on many a SACD releases I own. Rachel Podger’s Vivaldi: L’estro armonico - 12 concerti, Op. 3 on SACD is an excellent example of the audio quality I demand, as this recording is exceptional! Plus there are are very few new remastered vinyl releases for classical, particularly for opera, these days. A perfect example of this is Shubert’s Winterreise featuring Joyce DiDanato and pianist Yannick Nezet-Sequin, which I saw performed at Carnegie Hall for this recording and which sounds phenomenal in 96/24, and was release recently.

That would seem counter intuitive but that is clearly what the market is showing.

On one of these threads I recall someone posting how strings of violins, and the intensity that they are played at, can lead to degraded sound quality depending on the type of cartridge used.

I want to hear back from the classical music posse here to help me get to that higher level of listening with classical vinyl.

Is it the cartridge?

Or should I just stay with my digital sources?


idigmusic64
The LP is basically 1899 technology! Emile Berliner invents the flat disk with a spiral groove read by a stylus! In 1948 groove size is reduced along with rotational speed (CBS Labs in Stamford, CT). The modern LP is born!
You have part of your answer in type of cartridge used but it is not the whole story. How sensitive are your ears in pitch and speed variations?
How good is the recording? How good is your cartridge alignment? How quiet is your vinyl and phono set up? But even if solving these out you may still find that SACD, Hi-res, and CD can sound really good too. 
My take, based on MY priorities, of course.

For me, there is a fundamental difference in the sound of digital vs the sound of analog and this difference can be heard, to one degree or another, no matter how expensive or close to SOTA your equipment is. Before anyone goes off the deep end, please understand that I am in no way saying that streaming cannot sound good. It most definitely can, but the sound will always have some degree of a certain character that can be attributed to the process of digitization. Analog recordings and playback may have some of this character as well depending on whether there any digitization was employed in the mastering process. Streaming is a digital process, so some degree of that character will be there even with pure analog recordings. A pure analog recording played back on LP will not have digital artifacts; it will have other artifacts, but that is another story. Why is this important to your question?

IMO, the less processing or amplification that the sound of musical instruments is put through, the more that any digital artifacts added along the way will be audible. Acoustic instruments are, by definition, not amplified nor their sounds processed. What music uses acoustic instruments just about exclusively? Classical music.

The issue then becomes familiarity with the sound of live acoustic instruments. The more one is familiar with the sound of live acoustic instruments, the more sensitive one may be to the effects of digitization. Whether those effects or artifacts are more egregious to a given listener than LP surface noise or lack of absolute pitch stability is a personal call and dependent, in part, on the quality of your analog setup.

For me, a well set up turntable/arm/cart of good (not necessarily great) quality playing a decent pressing of an analog recording (and some digital recordings) will beat any streaming that I have heard, hands down. This, based on MY priorities of fidelity to the timbre/texture of acoustic instruments, natural acoustic warmth and very subtle dynamic nuance. It will sound closer to the sound of live acoustic instruments enough to obviate any possible advantages of streaming. Ever notice how different good analog recordings on LP tend to sound due to the different recording venues? Those differences are a really good thing in my book, and they often get homogenized to some degree by digitization/streaming.

So, as usual, the short answer is, it depends. For me, it’s a no brainer.

As phrased, this is kind of a non-sensical question. What matters is the quality of the front end components on both sides of the issue.

To create a more specific comparison, I believe a well chosen $5000 digital front end can now clearly outperform a well chosen $10,000 analog front end. This can be shown easily even using well chosen 44/16 files from analog sources available also as vinyl.
Give it a rest. 
Get off my lawn.
Meh.

It IS an idiotic question.  What sounds best to one has little bearing on what sounds best to others.  The goal is musical enjoyment, not grade school uniforms.