I have heard pretty much the best CD playback in the 90s, owned some of it as well, and more recently, own some of those as well, and vinyl, well look after, played back on a good turntable, well set up is better.

My AMG Giro, destroys all the CD players I have, including an Esoteric P5, D5 combination, Moon Andromeda, and Marantz CD7.

The things that helped CD do well, back in the day was, small size, no before playback requirements. CD players just worked, no special set up, long play back time possible, no changing sides, lie that digital was perfect, lie that CDs were indestructable.