Vinyl vs. digital: what am I doing wrong?

Wow, interesting indeed.

The vinyl versions of Nora blow away my CDs on my system. (Pro-ject RM10 with Sumiko Blackbird cartridge into a Rowland Continuum 500 amp). I liked the first one so much that I bought everything else I could find by her on vinyl.

Dave

I would suspect a mismatch between the cartridge and step-up stage or loading in the phono pre.

I have found about a 75 to 80% in the win column of Vinyl vs. the same CD… That means a few can in fact just be good, and mostly this really depends on the music being played, or how good the pressing on vinyl is that you have… some vinyl are dud's so don't kid yourself, and some CD's are pretty dynamically superior in few cases due to all the time and money went into mastering the CD at the time the piece was recorded and the vinyl was an afterthought. By the way I have pushed systems in the past to be nearly identical sound quality via vinyl or CD, Where they both would do it nearly as well as the other matching up.. Again you are not really comparing the two devices of a Turntable vs. a CD player, but a Recording vs. a Recording, you will have to Expand your Vinyl testing to some other things vs. AUDIOPHILE only recordings and you will most definitely start to find some Vinyl cannot be touched by the cd no matter how many DAConvertors or Transports you put behind some recordings.     

In my system, SACD, DVD-A and vinyl are all usually on the same level and CD lags behind, but is still good enough to be enjoyable, most of the time.

Dave

What????? Studio 68...I hear the exact opposite. I have an Ayre C5xe CD player - not a slouch, however the vinyl is warmer, more 3 dimensional, more air, ...just more real. If you didn't hear the vinyl, the CD is wonderful, but I do hear the vinyl. ..check your setup!!