Turntable got absolutely crushed by CD

As to performances, there are LPs and CDs which do not duplicate them or have equally good mastering/sound.   My Marston CDs of vocalists and pianists are not available on LP and often extremely rare originals (78s, Pathes, Edisons, etc).  They sound wonderful on high end equipment.  They don't necessarily need the analog equivalent to extract the best sound possible.  

As to high end sound, I have many LPs and CDs, where both were good remasterings, yet the LP is slightly better than the CD.  Then again, I have so many mediocre LPs due to inferior mastering or pressing where the CD kills the LP.  Until I purchased my EAR Acute CD player, I didn't enjoy CDs.  Now CDs are on an equally enjoyable footing as my analog gear.  I wouldn't want to live without both.

There was a very interesting study done many years ago. It was a professional study done by psychologists and following established procedures to minimize anything that might influence the outcome. There were for example no questions about which is better or why. People sat and listened to some music. Different kinds of music. The questions that were asked were directed at the music. Its been so long now I forget but they were asked questions along the lines of have you heard this before, would you be interested in buying it, do you feel more or less inclined to listen to more of this music in the future, that kind of thing. 

They had an assistant bringing the questionnaire hand it to them from behind, eliminating any chance the subjects might see an expression or mannerism and be influenced in their answers. Not that they could have done much, even the assistants had no idea what was going on. All they knew was light goes off you go in hand this over take it back, wash, rinse repeat. Easily the most comprehensively objective, scientifically and statistically sound study I have ever seen or heard about.

The music they heard was played three different ways, all carefully matched to volume, frequency response, everything possible to eliminate all but the two parameters being studied. In the first method it was turntable and tube amp. In the second it was CD and tube amp. In the third it was CD and SS amp. 

While I said 1st, 2nd and 3rd they weren't always in that order. People might get tired after a while. That might influence results. So the order was randomized.

Now even though this is to the best of my knowledge clearly the definitive study on the subject, since nobody was asked which one sounds better we can't come to that conclusion. What they did show however and by a statistically large margin is people enjoy and want to buy music more when it is played on turntables with tubes. There was a clear ranking with turntable/tube first, CD tube second, CD SS dead last.

At the conclusion of the study the poor assistant who had been hearing all this for weeks asked what in the world was going on? Why? Because she couldn't figure it out. But over time she had come to dread the time when it would be the one awful sounding one.

That would be, just so you know, the CD and solid state.

Story is useless. Since it is easy to chose  an amp ’good’ or ’bad’, ditto the TT or the CD player. What the designer of the test had in mind when choosing the equipment? Biased before it even began. Making up so called ’unbiased tests’ that are totally biased are all a part of managing your mind. If you need then to ’prove’ you are right? LOL

Without actually reading the study how could anyone conclude it was biased?If course CD players generally sounded pretty harsh back in the day so there's that.

As if professional 😬 psychologists know what things affect the sound. Heck, even audiophiles don’t know all of the varibles. That’s why I say negative results of any (rpt any) audio test cannot be generalized or used as evidence, much less proof. Best to just throw those tests out. Test procedures need to be very thorough and checked by someone who knows what he’s doing. Ditto test results. Just like the big boys do. Good luck, as Bob Dylan says on the trailing wax of all of his albums.