How much do I need to spend to make vinyl sound better than digital?

@r27y8u92 

“I cannot say possession of $150,000 is stupid, but also I refrain to say that was wise.”

Is that directed at me? You are making a value judgement on how many records someone owns? Really?

I hesitate to suggest what you may think of one friend of mine who has 14,000 LPs, all Afro Cuban. Or another friend, a famous and highly regarded journalist, who has 27,000 LPs. They must both be at the very least, very very very unwise? 

For the record, I have been collecting since the age of 11. I will soon be 71.  So that’s about 100 a year. 

A ton of money to get it to sound as good...I just did it and I say forget it.Records blow as far as sound quality in most you find used and new ones are ridiculous in price compared to digital. 

There's no getting away from the harsh reality that vinyl is expensive. To acquire a second hand turntable that matched my streaming set up, cost the equivalent of $11,000 last year. Then I spent $4,000 more on upgrading it. No doubt, there'll be further expensive when the cartridge wears out 

That was an extravagance that I couldn't really afford. Yet I feel it was worth the expense. There's something special about listening to vinyl that streaming can't give me. I wouldn't want to live without it. I tried for five years and failed.

you can spend $7500-$10k on a table and it will outperform most streamers, it will definately outperform sub $7500 streamers IMO of set up properly.

The OP has stated

"so I have no reason to think there’s a setup problem."  

"Is this par for the course for this level of vinyl gear?  What do I need to spend to get my vinyl gear to match the performance of decent digital?"

@lousyreeds1 Within this Thread, there are contributors to the Posts that have thought there has not been a set up problem for their Analogue Source, but over time have discovered that much more can be done for the Source that does not break the Bank.

Using your own request "What do I need to spend" and my statement " does not break the Bank." suggests very strongly not much monies are required.

In the short term, there is a great deal that can be taken on board for free, about what are readily available solutions to isolate the Vinyl Source from being affected by energy transferral from the ambient environment the Analogue Source is set up in. 

Why is isolating the Analogue Source needing to be considered ? The reasoning for it is to create a Mounting for the Analogue Source that allow the Stylus when in the Groove to send info that is as accurately as possible a facsimile of the Groove Modulations. It is this energy sent by the Cantilevers to the Armature and Coils that generates the electrical current sent to be amplified and produced as the end sound through the Speaker. 

In most cases of a set up for a Analogue Source, there is energy getting transferred from the Stylus that is not limited to Groove Modulation, there is also an Adulteration of the Groove Modulation, caused by energy transferral as a result od the Mechanical Operation of TT and the shortcomings of the Tonearm.

Additionally, there is the Adulteration of the Groove Modulation caused by the Transferral of Energies present in the ambient environment. It is the putting measures in place to reduce the negative impact of the present energies that leads t the subject and practice of creating Isolation.

Usually Isolation is created from the Structure Designed for the Analogue Source to be seated upon. 

This then leads to the question, what has been done in your listening space for the audio equipment to alleviate concerns about ambient energies impacting negatively on a Vinyl Replay. 

If the info above is alien to you and the owned TT is Perfect Levelled with the Tonearm Optimised as the set up.

How much Adulterated Energy is being Transferred via the Stylus to be produced as a Electrical Energy and then become sound?

When making a decision during Sound Comparisons with CD Source vs Vinyl Source, how much of the sound being listened to from the replay of a Vinyl LP, can it be said 'hand on heart', is the sound solely generated from the Groove, Modulation?

I would like to think others with experience 'chip in' and confirms the selecting a method as a supporting structure for the TT, has the benefit where substantial improvement in produced sound can be detected.

At this stage everything on offer remains without a cost, which must be an attraction.