Analog vs. digital

It's hard to wrap my mind around a space being sharper.  Perhaps you mean that the edges of notes are more distinct on the digital side.  While you use an excellent phono cartridge, a MM does soften things up a bit compared to a low output MC.  But then you'd have to compensate for its lower output.

By your own description your analog side outperforms your digital side in ways that are important to you.  Most of your system is shared by both sides.  However, if you read Goldensound's review of your DAC it sounds very much like what you've described.  My personal bias is to look directly at hardware.  In analog you have, IIUC, an excellent phono stage with tubes and powered with an LPS.  On the digital side, once you get by the digital manipulation, you have an analog section consisting of op-amp chips.  These typically have a lot of feedback.  And it's powered by a switch mode ps.  I think you can do far better on the digital side.

@rvpiano 

‘But the LP’s from that period actually (usually) sound better.

To an extent I agree, but again definitely exceptions existed. When I had a turntable I often compared records and CDs of the same titles. In some cases the LP was better sounding. In some cases they were pretty much equal. On a few occasions the CD sounded better than the corresponding LP.  So in my experience it seems that the recording’s quality is as big a determining factor as is the recording format.

Charles

Melm,

It’s not that the space is sharper, it’s, as you say, the notes are more distinct in digital. As far as being able to do a lot better on the digital side, the representation is very natural, just not as rounded. If anything, it’s objectively more real sounding, less idealized than analog. The addition of the Benchmark DAC really made my system come alive. The coordination of the the tubed and recapped Conrad-Johnson preamp with the very accurate Benchmark really is an ideal match.
The novelty of the Sutherland phono preamp has just reawakened my interest in analog.

theoretically the analog will win cause signal path is shorter and less dependable on all bunch of decoding and filtering processes. 

Uh, no. You pick one process without discussing the other - the retrieval of music from squiggly grooves, conversion to an EMF, filtering out of subsonic and supersonic interference, noise and distortion inherent to the plastic qualities of vinyl.  You don't get to pick and choose what you pay attention to.

And since most albums are now mastered digitally, even your shorter path is not necessarily valid.

G

While I am now mostly digital these days, there are some vinyl albums that sound way better than their CD cousins and get played from time to time.  

I wish I understood why…