Digital is far better than vinyl

@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.

@gte357s

I guess all your experience points to digital. I mean if I didn’t have over 2,000 albums in outstanding quality that I collected over the last 55 years… I wouldn’t give vinyl a second look. In my system vinyl and digital are neck and neck… the better depends on the album. But I have $45K invested in both the analog and digital end. This is the investment range where they tend to be similar, in much lower and much higher price ranges vinyl tends to sound much better for a similar price range.

I would still consider having a professional come over and examine your system. It would be worth a couple hundred to see if there is some glaring problem. Typically one gets a pretty cheap Rega, a decent phono stage and it trounces one’s digital end.

@ghdprentice 

Typically one gets a pretty cheap Rega, a decent phono stage and it trounces one’s digital end.

Great point! I guess this knife cuts both ways. My original OP was highlighting the discrepancy between a well-sorted analog rig vs. a hastily put together digital setup. But you are absolutely correct in pointing out that the reverse is also true.

Let me ask you this then ... let's say if you were starting out with vinyl and didn't already own 2,000 albums, would you have spent the same amount of money on building a reference analog system? Or would you have focused on extracting the last bit of fidelity out of your digital?

If I did not have all my legacy analog stuff, I would not give it a second look. I would put every cent into digital… digital streaming.

I am currently listening to Count Basie album recorded in 1957 Chairman of the Board) on streaming. If I did not know better I would guess it was vinyl. If I had twice the budget in digital… it would be even better, no question that is where to put your money today.