Are Digitally mastered LPs any better than CDs?

There have have been numerous digitally mastered classical albums from the 80's (mostly Phillips and London) popping up in the local record stores I've been buying for about $1-3 each. While they might not have the warmth of the best all analogue productions, they certainly don't suffer from the deficiencies of 80's digital either. The quality of the vinyl surfaces are fine, no gripes about noise (unlike many contemporary rock vinyl releases.)

They vary widely. Some of the digitally mastered LP transfers sound bad. Some are excellent. It really depends on the mastering and pressing. Digital recordings have wide frequency bandwidth and wide dynamic range. If the LP is cut with wide grooves that allow big swings then it will sound great. If it is compressed with narrow grooves, it will sound thin and constricted. Look at how many tracks are on each side and the timing. If the LP is a best of collection, for example, with 6-7 tracks per side and a run time of greater than 20 minutes per side, watch out, it could be a mess. On the other hand if a typical length CD of 60 minutes is on 4 LP sides (15 minutes per side) it could sound incredible. Check it out.

Metallica is reputed to be better. Their CD's are normally compressed and flat topping throughout - an effect that is harder to do with Vinyl. So it depends.

Agree with above posters. I have some digitally recorded LPs that are great. I think it helps a great deal just to avoid the errors possible in home digital playback. Even though I'm biased toward all analogue LPs, I try to listen with an open mind and many times I'm quite surprised.

Good summary by Johnnyb53. Sampling rates when cutting/pressing vinyl are unlimited and bandwidth is far greater than RBCD. Another point, there's no need for the brickwall filter at 22kHz, which is a part of every RBCD and player. That filter causes audible harmonic distortions, one reason so many RBCDs sound harsh in the upper mids. Vinyl doesn't have that problem either.

Record surface noise is inversely proportional to record cleaning, record care and the quality of the playback equipment, including the phono stage. Get all those right and your records will be quiet, though no one should think this will be easy or cheap - it's neither.

I have hundreds of digital LP's that sound better than any CD or SACD. DVD-A can give vinyl a run, but there are so few titles it's not worth the cost of a playback deck that would match my vinyl rig.

Ultimately, as Eweedhome said, listen for yourself and decide. Try to listen to rigs that you could aspire to owning. If your budget were (say) $5,000, it might not help much to listen to $500 rigs, or $50,000 ones either.