Vinyl VS Digital

If the source is recorded from analog tape originally, Lp should be preferred. Most newer material is not . And should not be used for comparison as it is then digital converted to analog . Defeats the purpose. 

I first had a Rega RP3 (400), Grado Gold cartridge (250), and NAD phonostage (200). Vinyl did not approach digital quality. A Clearaudio Performance se table (3000), ARC PH 5 phonostage (2500), and a Clearaudio Maestro (1200) came very close to digital quality. I now have the same table, but with a Stradivari cartridge (4000) and an ARC PH8 phonostage (7000). Finally I have surpassed digital. Not only did staging improve with the many upgrades, the amount of music taken from the grooves by the cartridge increased dramatically with every upgrade. I was taken with my ability to play all my records when I first got back into vinyl 10 years ago. If I knew how much music was being left in the record grooves with my first few systems, I might have sold my records, bought a great DAC, and saved tons of money. Point 1: It takes a lot of money to get CD quality out of a vinyl rig. If you are not spending a lot of money, you are listening to vinyl because you like to (that's me), not because the sound is "better" (IMO); far too much music is being left on the record. I now stream on one all-digital system (4000 all in) and have a main analogue-only system (40,000). Point 2: You have to talk about money invested if you want to compare digital to analogue. That's just my opinion, though; different ears hear the same things very differently. BTW, prices provided are new prices, certainly not what I paid or will ever be able to afford.

@golferboy 

I know, its been awhile.  The issue I was having turned out to be a bad cartridge.  However, I wanted to comment on everything else you said which to summarize is "Pay UP$$" if your expecting the sound of Vinyl to match the clarity, detail, dynamics and quietness of digital.  This is especially true if you've spent a fair amount building your digital system.

I have been upgrading my two channel system and theater to 4K vid.  I have yet to take the analog plunge but when I do i'll be allocating 6K to start.  I'll get some pretty stuff too, cause half the satisfaction is watching it work.  

I've since heard some good analog systems.  It's not that I think all things sound better but I will say I feel less listening fatigue with a good analog system.  

One pitfall of analog is that some people just cannot sit back and listen to it without constantly thinking about cartridge alignment, record cleaning, VTA, VTF and whatever else can be fooled with.  In that case, you're much better off with digital.  IMO, if you buy something like a $2000 Music Hall 7.3 with a pre-installed cartridge and a $300  Pro-ject phono preamp, you will be getting a good taste of analog sound.  If you don't like it then, I would give it up and not waste 6k.  6k is not a lot to spend on analog, but it's too much money to waste on something you won't like. 
Also pick up a few brand new or mint used records because playing old damaged ones won't help your experience any.  IMO.  

chayro

One pitfall of analog is that some people just cannot sit back and listen to it without constantly thinking about cartridge alignment, record cleaning, VTA, VTF and whatever else can be fooled with.

That's true. Those listeners usually don't have their systems set up properly, and their trial-and-error approach using sloppy tools never gets them there.