Am I getting it all?

I think Dan-ed asked the key question. How does digital better the vinyl? If you say better bass or upper treble, you may be missing the point. You may at this stage be listening too critically. All the setup suggestions above could be part of it, but I thought what you said about the one record giving you the most intense experience yet was key. That's exactly where analog smokes digital. When you first get into vinyl, and you're tweaking things, it's easy to lose sight of the big picture. Listen instead to dynamics, soundstage, and an overall more organic or human presentation. Step back and try to forget the analytical for now. Kinda like those 3D pictures that at first look like nothing but as you unfocus reveal themselves.
I have a really nice digital setup but I find I rarely pull out a cd or sacd. That emotional connection I get much more with lp's. You may find a gradual shift in preferences too.

I agree with all, try an active preamp. All the passives I've heard sound like there is something missing from the music.

Hmmmm....much food for thought here. I have found a subtle addictive quality about vinyl that digital does not have. However, overall sound quality favors digital, and I agree with you Dan_ed and Dcstep, that much of the problem lies in the recordings themselves. Most of my small vinyl collection was bought on auction here on
A'gon or ebay, some are 180 gr. pressings that are out-standing. I thought I'd get back into vinyl to broaden my ability to collect and listen to music, which it has done, but if you've spoiled yourself with good playback gear, it's hard to settle with just any old sound coming out of those speakers. There seems to be a great disparity between recordings in the vinyl format, not so much with digital, though that is sometimes an issue there, too.
I guess I'll just have to take the good with the bad, though I would not go so far as to say vinyl "smokes" digital. They are different, both enjoyable, though on some recordings, vinyl gives more thrills and chills than digital.
The passive pre is fairly new, an acquisition from back in Oct. '07. I don't have a good active line stage to compare it to at the moment, but my system sounds the best it has yet, even when I had a Bat VK30 w/sixpac upgrade. I'm still in the early learning stages of vinyl, after being out of it for 18 years, so it's fun, and new, and enjoyable.

Thanks to all, and enjoy, and I'm open to more learning on this format. Lots more to know than just sticking in a cd and pushing play on the remote.
Dan

I have had the same experience as Islandmandan. My set up is not as good though.

When Michael Fremer started at Stereophile he jumped right in with his cd is crap, vinyl is so much better line. So I thought that's great, I'll get a turntable and have this great sound and be the envy of all my friends and neighbors.

So I bought a SOTA Comet tt, a Sumiko Blue Point Special cartridge and an Audio Alchemy phono stage. All recommended by Stereophile at the time and considered good enough to demonstrate the magic of vinyl. I set it up as best I could (probably not that well) and started playing records. And nothing happened. Vinyl sounded OK but didn't blow away anything.

I eventually packed it up but got the rig out recently and tried it again. Same results. I am not a tweaker and my set up (I bought protractors, levels, stylus gauges, etc.)would make a vinyl lover cringe, I'm sure.

I think that a major factor in sound quality is how well a cd or lp is recorded, mastered and manufactured. I also think that we are just beginning to hear what cd is capable of. I'm not thrilled about that because I have a lot of cds and the idea of replacing them with remasters causes my wallet to hurt.

For example, I recently purchased the new Emmylou Harris box set "Songbird". I don't know how many audiophiles like Emmylou but everyone should give her a listen. She has a gorgeous voice and great taste in music, if you like country. Don't laugh, you may like it. If you don't like Emmylou though, you won't like any country.

Anyway, the sound on these cds is beautiful. It easily blows away the sound on the original releases. If any vinyl lovers have heard this box set, let me know what you think. These are not purist recordings. They are mostly close miked, built in the studio recordings, but I think they sound great. Maybe that's where my problem is. If someone doesn't think they sound great, could you explain to me why. Maybe I just have bad ears or poor taste in sound.

One easy test of current recordings is Nora Jones, with all her stuff available on both 180 gram vinyl and CD. It's very well recorded with wide dynamic range and a lot of subtle sounds. In my system, the CDs sound fine and if I didn't have vinyl I'd be pretty happy, BUT the vinyl is a good 10% better in resolution, detail and lack of grain in the sound.

I've got a collection of about 1200 LPs, almost all purchased new by me, going back to around 1959. The quality varies widely, but I've got a lot of really good stuff, particularly D2D stuff from the '70s and '80s. Most of the collection is very satisfying, but it varies. For instance, I love my original pressing of James Taylor's stuff fromt he '60s, '70s and '80s is really excellent; however, Linda Ronstadt's stuff from the same era is overly compressed and mostly disappointing (Peter Asher producer, if you want a name to avoid).

It's a trial an error process finding labels and artists that you like.

Anyway, back to my premise, if you can't hear a difference between the Nora Jones vinyl and the same CDs, then you're probably wasting time with vinyl OR you need to improve your vinyl front end.

Dave