Digital is far better than vinyl

i personally like this forum BECAUSE it is populated by ’unprofessionals’... that is, regular people who are dedicated to, and love music, and the fine equipment that produces it for us

there are some professionals that post here, and these posts can often be rather cringeworthy with their transparent commercial bias

I also cannot get great sound out of vinyl even I put in similar amount of money for my digital and vinyl rig, around CAD $5000 for the turntable, arm, cartridge and cable, while my CD player + DAC cost around $3000. Until recently, I added a power conditioner and separate the power supply of the turntable and preamp from the power amp, big improvement on my vinyl rig, and the improvement is bigger than my digital rig. Now, I can finally get equally good sound from my vinyls. But still, I question myself, is it worthwhile to keep going the vinyl rig if I can only get equally good but not better sound. Each decent vinyl disc cost 5x more than a CD, and much limited in selection, and much less convenient.

@gte357s

This is an unusual experience. Typically in this price range vinyl outshines digital. What is your Phonostage? I would look carefully at your analog end. See, if there is a cartridge alignment or others mounting problem. I would take it to a pro for setup.

On the other question. If this is all I had invested in vinyl I would not go on, especially with the poor sound. Typically in your price range vinyl just sounds so much better, it pulls you in. Digital will just get better and streaming best of all is nearly free with $14 / month with millions of tubes many higher def than CD. It is here and the future.

@ghdprentice

i missed to mentioned the $5000 includes a Allnic 1202 phono stage. And it is a no its fault, I am sure some people get good result from it, but I think it is a mismatch with my Coincident Statement line stage. I now use a EAR 868PL which has a very good MC phono stage as well. Then my cost are the same for both digital and vinyl at $3000.

Yes, I check all the alignment and stuff. I am no expert, so, I can only do as best as I can. My friends bought a software to adjust the alignment, but then it is another $1000 investment. And my cartridge is not something high end, it is a Denon H5LC MC cartridge, on a Sota star sapphire turntable with SAEC 308 tonearm, Cardas neutral reference phono cable.

I just feel it is not easy to get good sound from vinyl. It seems for me, the power has a significant effect on it. Maybe the stable power make the turntable speed more stable, who knows.  The digital is almost plug and play, no alignment is required.  And not much you can adjust, when you buy a DAC, you either like it or you don’t.  

My DAC is an APL with a compatible modified SACD player that output native DSD data directly to the DAC to do native DSD decoding, not DSD over PCM. But comparing vinyl and SACD, there is definitely a difference. The vinyl sounds much smoother and more natural. But maybe I am not too bother by this unnatural-ness of CD.

BTW, I should be more specific.  My SACD and vinyl both sounds good.  If I compare vinyl to streaming data file from my NAS, then definitely I prefer vinyl.  And if I compared vinyl to streaming from internet like Tidal, then vinyl is quite a bit better.  Streaming from Bluetooth is the worst.