Does Anyone Think CD is Better Than Vinyl/Analog?


I am curious to know if anyone thinks the CD format (and I suppose that could include digital altogether) sounds better than vinyl and other analog formats. Who here has gone really far down both paths and can make a valid comparison? So far, I have only gone very far down the CD path and I just keep getting blown away by what the medium is capable of! I haven’t hit a wall yet. It is extremely dependent on proper setup, synergy and source material. Once you start getting those things right, the equipment gets out of the way and it can sound more fantastic than you can imagine! It’s led me to start developing a philosophy that goes something like this: Digital IS “perfect sound forever”; it’s what we do to the signal between the surface of the CD and the speaker cone that compromises it.” 
So I suppose what I’m asking for is stories from people who have explored both mediums in depth and came to the conclusion that CD has the most potential (or vice versa - that’s helpful too). And I don’t simply mean you’ve spent a lot of money on a CD player. I mean you’ve tinkered and tweaked and done actual “research in the lab,” and came back with a deep understanding of the medium and can share those experiences with others.

In my experience, the three most important things to get right are to find a good CD player (and good rarely means most expensive in my experience) and then give it clean power. In my case, I have modified my CD player to run off battery power with DC-DC regulators. The last thing that must be done right is the preamp. It’s the difference between “sounds pretty good” and “sounds dynamic and realistic.”
128x128mkgus
It's just such a loaded question. It all depends on how the recording was recorded, mixed and mastered for the particular format, and then the quality of equipment on which you're listening to it. The best mastered CD in the world will sound like crap compared to an off-the-shelf LP if you're listening to the LP on a $100,000 system and the CD on a Discman and cheap earbuds. Conversely, an expertly mastered LP will sound awful compared to a standard CD if you play the vinyl on a Mickey Mouse turntable. Taking it a step further, many of the early CDs weren't remastered for digital and thus sounded horrible (Fleetwood Mac's Rumours immediately comes to mind), and many DDD recordings of the '90s and '00s that were released in small quantities on vinyl weren't remastered for analog and sound awful.
For me, personally, I prefer older recordings on vinyl and newer recordings based on the recording/mixing process. I'll usually stay away from vinyl reissues unless I know they're AAA or that they're been remasted/remixed specifically for analog. But I won't hesitate to buy CD box sets like the recent Beatles reissues, especially when not all of the material is being made available on vinyl. (Full disclosure: I end up buying the single CD, the multiple CD, the single vinyl, the multiple vinyl and the picture vinyl, because I am a masochist.)
Speaking as somebody that went from vinyl (1000+) to CDs (4000+) and back to vinyl (now 2500+ LPs), and having always had nice gear, my opinion is, overall, yes. Vinyl sounds better to my ears despite the imperfections and differences between pressings, it just sounds consistently more organically real, impactful/dynamic, three-dimensional, and more exciting than my best digital recordings. A bad recording is a bad recording, but a great recording will sound better on a good analog setup. So will most mediocre recordings. I also like having the art, booklets, liner notes I can actually read, etc. Gives me a deeper more involved experience. If you want convenience go for digital, if you want to be moved go with vinyl. Digital and the playback gear these days has improved considerably, it just doesn't excite me.
I prefer the inconvenience of analog... stereo and mono vinyl, 78 shellac, belt drive, idler drive, moving coil, moving iron, strain gauge, optical... dragging a rock through a ragged plastic groove, electrons dancing in glass tubes, and the magic of it all brings me joy. Am I going to listen to my German pressing of Timeless through my DS02 or Sgt Peppers mono through my Miyajima Zero or La Boheme 78 through my Miyajima Spirit as stand up every 10-25 minutes and flip through my favorites is all part of my experience that I wouldn’t want any other way. My passion for music involves more than just listening. Or... all the senses enhance my experience of listening.

I stream to audition music I might want to buy on vinyl and it is very useful for that. When I sit to listen to listen to digital,
with all its convenience, I find myself distracted, thinking about what I might want to listen to instead. When I select a record and sit to listen, i am engaged in the music, and nothing else. That alone is the biggest difference in my experience between the two, and I can only speak to and act on what moves me.
In terms of music quality, of course CD is better....
In terms of nostalgia, perhaps vinyl will win.

For music, CD offers:

- Much less noise.

- Much wider dynamic range.

- No RIAA curve matching which in itself is an inadequacy of vinyl which needs to be corrected.

- The recording does not get destroyed every time you play it.

- All post 1990’ish vinyl actually gets recorded digitally first and then pressed onto vinyl.

If you do not believe the above, talk to sound/recording engineers.