5-6 things, at least for now.. i thought the same thing at one time!!!! it took a while to get there .. tweak here , tweak there. even though i will continue, cuz i enjoy the hobby, i dont listen to cd often (seldom). my suggestions are:
1) purchase a diff cart. something that reduces the imperfections of vinyl. some would be benz, sumiko blackbird, many others. made a huge difference for me. i dont really understand how that works , except that the better cart's ride deeper in the groove. all i can say is that it works. and some of my albums , you wouldnt know that you are listening to a needle in a vinyl groove. it really is that quiet.
2) diff phono. i have 2 of yours, one with battery the other without. they homogenize the sound, and collapse the soundstage. they are ok for the price but there are much better units.
3) if you can, go tube phono. it will expand the stage, speakers will disappear. this can be an issue if you use a low output cart cuz good QUIET tube phono's are quite expensive, but in my opinon it's the only way.
4) linn should be isolated as much as possible. wall mount is prob best but i use a 3 point suspension and it gives pretty good results. never heard the arm you are using, but the linn will give you great results with more expensive ones.
5) make sure the arm is set to the correct height for your setup. when setup correctly, everything comes in focus.
6) clean records with a VPI or something similar. it made a tremendous diff for me.
it takes more time and effort to get the system to work within it's capability. for me that's the fun of it. with the advancements in digital , i agree that unless the tweaking is performed, digital sound better. but once the stars are aligned , analog will trump it.
my digital system(s): wadia , classe' , theta , ead.. sounds good but analog with all it's quirks is better.
my 2 cents for what it's worth, which is prob not a lot.
