Got a New CD Player and Now I'm Bummed

Just leave everything as is and wait for a few months. Listen and enjoy. Your opinion may shift over time. Is there any real reason to make a quick change?

I agree just wait... Heightened expectations and the thrill of new gear can skew thoughts and opinion in comparing gear. As the new gear settles in and you get accustom to it your point of view may shift.

Sometimes the fact that something sounds different is heard as sounding better when it may not in reality. Time has a way of being more fair and/or critical to new gear vs older gear.

I'll wager half your TT problem is that pretty cabinet. Even if you're married to the entertainment center, you might try resiting the TT on an experimental basis.

I would not spend significant amounts of money to get a marginal improvement in vinyl playback. I would save the money for your next digital upgrade. I think that most of the sound quality improvements have been wrung out of vinyl but cd players and cds are just starting to hit their stride. I think cds and cd players will continue to improve significantly for years to come. Then there is the promise of 24/96 or better digital downloads somewhere in the future.

Thanks folks. I'm certainly not in any rush however the superiority of my digital front end over my analogue is quite clear and unlikely to change over time. As to the location of the turntable--it is really the best set up I've ever had (and I've tried most of them). If you look closely you will see that the Target shelf passes through the back panel of the entertainment center. It is bolted to a piece of 5/8 birch ply that is screwed to wall studs. The table is literally floating within the entertainment center, immune from footfalls and airborne vibration generated by the speakers. Also, I've replaced the MDF shelf on the Target with a Symposium Svelte Shelf. All in all, this is the best isolation I've ever achieved and has the added benefit of being out of harms way to boot.

I just feel that while the Scout is a good player and an excellent value for money, there must be vinyl rigs out there that will fit into my space and outperform the Scout in a meaningful way. Perhaps I'm wrong here but I've always operated under the assumption (untested really) that the best vinyl playback will outperform the best digital playback. Now that I've upped the ante on the digital side it would only make sense that I will need to spend a comparable sum to get similar performance out of my LP's. Actually, let me put that as a question--do you think at this point in time one needs to spend less, the same or more on a vinyl rig to get the same level of performance out of digital? In other words and speaking generally, if my CDP retails for around $8K, do I need to spend about that much to approximate the sound of my Esoteric? Or does the inherent supremacy of vinyl mean I can spend half as much to get similar quality sound? (Or for those who may tout the superiority of digital, do I need to spend half again as much to get the similar quality sound?

I'm very curious as to where people are with this. I've always accepted as an article of faith that, all things being equal, vinyl will outperform digital. But the degree to which the Esoteric spanks the Scout (granted, at four times the price) I'm not so sure anymore.

BTW, I've run A-B tests here with a number of recordings in which I have both LP and CD format. Several of the LP's are quality (audiophile) issues such as MOFI's, etc. These were put up against standard Redbook CD's in the shootout.