digital vs vinyl thoughts

Minor1, I won't disagree with the specifics of your argument, but I believe you might have unfairly left out the fact that analog information is regularly obscured and/or distorted when it is superimposed with the typical mechanical noise artifacts that exists with analog.

" Go to a store that has both in high end equipment and listen for yourself " who hasn't. In fact you can go to your own system if your sources are equal and listen, I have, and my digital and analog systems are very close, but different, except the analog rig cost nearly three times as much. You can quote all kinds of mumbo jumbo but what you haven't taken into account is that people all determine what they like best and what they prefer, it may not be what you prefer, but the old adage, "to each his own " still applies.

Add to that some analog info can in fact be missing - a scratch on the LP for example.

I'm not bashning analog at all; please see my previous posts.

Unsound, another way to say what Minor1 is saying is that surface noise is just that - on the surface, and can be listened through to the music. Digital distortions are more seriously disruptive to the sound of the music itself than analog distortions (even though there usually are more distortions in analog). Part of this is that typical analog distortions occur at much lower frequencies than in digital, where they are at higher and therefore more annoyingly disruptive frequencies. Digital always sounds less "real" for this reason, especially if we are talking about unamplified, acoustically produced music (mainly classical and jazz). Electronically produced music does not suffer nearly so much from digital reproduction, so if you are only into rock, it's not that big a difference between the two. And far too often, excessive amplification ruins acoustic timbres anyway. One of the most frustrating aspects of my job is playing a pops show where the "sound guys" mike the hell out of everything and then set up a bunch of monitors blasting all around the stage, trying to solve the problem that no one can hear each other by making it even louder. And this occurs all the time in the very finest halls in the world. Sigh. But I digress. The other much more controversial point is that many audiophiles don't actually listen beyond the surface of the music, even if they do have good hearing. Just because one has good hearing does not necessarily mean that one actually trains and uses their ears to hear and understand music well.

"Digital always sounds less "real" for this reason"

An absolute statement that is simply not true in my experience.

Digital often sounds more real to me.

Just my opinion....