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Help: DSOTM Sounds better on CD than LP

I was listening to Dark Side of the Moon the other day on CD thoroughly enjoying myself when I remembered that I had the LP of this album. I dug through my collection with great anticipation of the joy that I would soon know. I put on the LP and something horrible happened. Gasp…..The soundstage collapsed in on itself and the magic or the album was lost. As you all know CD should never sound better than analog so I am now faced with the dilemma of how to bring balance back to the universe.

I would like to upgrade both my cartridge and phono amp. I am willing to spend up to about $3k for the pair but am willing to move up or down a bit from there based on significant improvements in sound or a lack thereof. The cartridge will be new and the phono will be used. I have thoroughly searched the forum and have a few carts in mind but would like to get some informed opinions from you all on what combination would best suit me.

My current setup is as follows,
Speaker: Thiel 3.6
Amp: Parasound HCA-3500
Pre: Classe Cp-50
Digital: Esoteric X-03
Table: Spacedeck
Arm: Space Arm (The carbon fiber one)
Cartridge: Nottingham Tracer 1
Phono: Grado PH-1
System

Let me try to give a little description about what performance aspects I am looking for. I have had both tubes and solid state in my system before and I am open to either. I have found that I prefer my music to be coming from a dark abyss rather than from a live silence. My current setup has great tonality and is very listenable but lacks in absolute resolution, detail and staging. I would like more of each of these. It also works great for singe instruments and solos but when the whole band comes in it seems to get confused about where to place the instruments and how to distinguish between them.

Thanks in advance for helping guys.
cadence151

Showing 1 response by jb0194

jb0194
476 posts
 
I'll wager your cdp sounds very nice.

I own an Esoteric P70 that feeds a dCS Scarlatti stack (DAC/Upsampler/Clock) that never fails to bring musical enjoyment.

For context, I grew up up wax. "Meet the Beatles" was the first lp my sibs and I bought in 1964. My current analog source is very satisfying: Pickering XSV5000 with new genuine D7500 stylus >> a babied and recently professionally refurbished Dual 701 (tweaked w/ custom hardwood base/plinth suspended on norbornene "unhappy" balls/carbon fiber atop Herbies mats) >> Oyaide PA-2075 RR "POCC A" phono cables >> Bottlehead Eros phono pre. Take it fwiw, but imho this combo concedes little or nothing most now in use.

Perhaps you've hit the steep portion of the "diminishing returns" graph with both your analog and digital sources.

That's a good thing!
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