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Turntable got absolutely crushed by CD

Long story short, i've just brought home a VPI classic 1 mounted with a Zu-Denon DL103 on JMW Memorial 10.5 with the appropriate heavier counterweight. Had everything dialed in..perfect azimuth, VTF, overhang, with only a slightly higher than perfect VTA. Levelling checked. All good. 

I did a comparison between the VPI and my Esoteric X03SE and it's not even close. The Esoteric completely crushes the VPI in all regards. The level of treble refinement, air, decay, soundstage depth and width, seperation, tonality, overall coherence is just a simply a league above from what I'm hearing from the VPI. The only area the VPI seems to be better at is bass weight, but not by much. 

I'm honestly quite dumbfounded here. I've always believed that analogue should be superior to digital. I know the Esoteric is a much pricier item but the VPI classic is supposed to be a very good turntable and shouldn't be a slouch either. At this point I feel like I should give up on analogue playback and invest further in digital. 

Has anyone had a similar experience comparing the best of digital to a very good analogue setup?

Equipment:
Esoteric X03SE 
VPI Classic, JMW Memorial 10.5, Zu-DL103
Accuphase C200L
Accuphase P600
AR 90 speakers

Test Record/CD:
Sarah McLachlan - Surfacing (Redbook vs MOV 180g reissue)



chadsort
minorl
740 posts
 

I know relatively young people getting into vinyl and cassettes.  Seriously. they are grabbing up used cassette decks and the tons of used cassettes at thrift stores and loving them.

relatively inexpensive turntables and vintage receivers with decent internal phono stages are what I'm seeing younger people grab up.  Just the other day, I had to show to 20 somethings how to clean the tape heads on their cassette deck.  They had no clue why the sound was muffled.  teaching them about tape decks and degradation of tapes was interesting. 

Also, telling them about the best tape decks out there and to grab them if they come up cheap was also fun.

enjoy

inna
5,245 posts
 
Japanese cds’ shape is also more accurate, more round, more symmetrical. With cds it also starts with ’turntable’, with mechanics.
elizabeth
6,726 posts
 
I have never ever seen a CD that was not round enough to play just fine. (aside from some 'toy' heart shaped or other deliberate oddball shape)If ANYONE has ever had a CD that did not play due to being 'out of round'... I would be amazed and astounded. And Please, tell me the study with scientific controls where they discovered that Japanese CDs had this amazing quality???           

geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
14,147 posts
 
Lizzie, are you living in a cave, perchance? The German disc trimmer trimmed the outer edge of CD and cut the outer edge at an angle. The outer circumference is not perfectly round relative to the spindle hole. Less wobbling equals less jitter. An Angled edge means less scattered background laser light gets into the photodetector. And you want to be my latex salesperson? 

One secret, it’s very hush hush, so don’t tell anyone, of the Japanese SHM CDs is that the clear layer of the CDs is more transparent than standard CDs, which use polycarbonate for the clear layer. As fate would have it polycarbonate is only around 90-92% transparent. Can you believe it? 😳
inna
5,245 posts
 
"play just fine" is not audiophile language. Yes, you would have to pay more for Japanese cds. Do it.
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