As Yakbob has stated clearly, and others have said, you have a huge imbalance in your digital vs analog. Who do you think a $500 mediocre even at that CDP will compare with your TT costing > 10X that? I mean digital can be great, BTU its not magic....
So why do you believe it might be futile? share.
I wont repeat the pages and pages that i have posted on how to get digital to sing, nor can i quote all the others who have, in thread after thread given of their knowledge. But rather than ask a superficial question, I’d suggest reading that trove of info.
Bottom line, while the are different, i generally prefer great digital to great vinyl, in part because the great music may not be on audiophile vinyl, but it may well be remastered on digital. I’m talking 10s of 1000s of titles on, say Tidal or Qobuz.
While it is much more complicated, i can also say that without question, streaming can be superior to any CDP, **all other things held constant**. You know, one variable per equation.
You will spend vastly more money than you have so far on digital, and even more in terms of time and effort to get it right. yes, there are many ways to get digital wrong. But i can get truly great sound with <$1k DACs. Beware though, i may have that much or more in stream, network, bridges, and idolators before it hits the DAC (USB - SPDIF has issues).
Will digital sound like analog? Honestly no. In many ways it will be vastly better. In others it will fall short of some euphonics.
I was an analog bigot until a couple years back. No more!
