When and how did you, if at all, realize vinyl is better?

"The assumption here is that all modern music is digital and all mastered the same."

Geez, talk about a Strawman argument. I never heard anyone make that assumption.

We've showed with a lot of excellent digital gear at shows. One of the best was the Stahltek, so far ahead of the dcs, msb and the like that quite often I found myself looking at the turntable to see if an LP was playing. IOW it was pretty darn musical! Its had better be- the transport and DAC combo was about $72,000 at the time.

The designer was in the room at one show (RMAF) and was playing a Massive Attack cut; I asked him if he would like to hear the same thing on LP. He said 'sure', I put it on and in about 5 seconds he turned to me and said 'digital has such a long way to go'. I chalk it to his pragmatism that he made some of the very best stuff out there.

Speaking of pragmatism, to know that the LP is not in fact inferior, you don't have to hear a comparison or know any technical stuff at all. All you have to know is that the year of least LP production was 1992. That's 25 years ago folks and yet somehow LP production has been on the rise ever since (in the UK, sales eclipsed digital downloads fairly recently).

IOW you know because the market continues to want it. If digital was really in fact better, the LP would have been long gone and no mistake. Superior technologies have a way of committing inferior technologies to the dustbin. This is why 78s went the way. And why no-one makes side-valve internal combustion engines. And so on.

 What the record labels tried to do was ram the CD down our throats. That didn't work because it wasn't actually better. Critics like to say that people prefer the distortion of the LP, but usually they fail to mention in the same breath that people prefer that over the distortion of digital (see my first post in this thread).

If one is to be pragmatic, it would be that one has to accept that we will never get rid of distortion although we will continue to reduce it. Being that such is the case, then it really becomes a matter of understanding how the ear works and which distortions it does not care about so much and which ones it does. To that end, distortions that involve higher frequencies and or harmonics are going to be less musical to the ear. Its possible to accommodate that in design.

So that is what digital has to sort out, and in the last 15 years in particular there has been a lot of excellent work in that area. I think eventually it will get there (it nearly is now although that's been true for a really long time); until then its getting easier and easier to find vinyl.

A well set up 'table with less than 2 grams of weight on the needle  do not wear down the vinyl. Vinyl gets dirty, a record cleaning machine can add amazing improvements to vinyl playback. I've got records I've owned since I was 14 years old, that have been played literally hundreds of times. And they still play like new after a good washing. Some older abused records may have a pop or two, but that is due to damage. A damaged CD can be completely unusable. So that road goes both ways. A vinyl playback setup is not complete without an RCM. (See my review of the new Pro-Ject VS-C) 

At present I've got more invested in my CD player than my analog rig. (Cary 306 vs Scout/Sumiko/Musical Surroundings) and they both sound great! If someone walked in and I wanted to give them the one song demo, I'd play them a CD. It has great dynamics and clean sound, great bass. But if we are going to sit down and drink several beverages and enjoy the music, I'll spin records. And it also depends on the music I'm listening to. Most classic rock and jazz, classical, I'll prefer on vinyl, because of the smooth and non-fatiguing sound. But if I want to hear some Iron Maiden or Judas Priest, I'll prefer the CD. Because it can play louder without feedback, has great dynamic range, crystal clear definition between notes.

Honest, a side by side A/B comparison willl say that the CD sounds better. But over the course of a few hours, the vinyl draws me in. I will play one after the other, and that leads to the next. After about two CD's, I'm done. I am more apt to have an emotional response to vinyl than CD.  I like GregKohanmin's idea about resonance, interesting theory. 

@geoffkait 

"The assumption here is that all modern music is digital and all mastered the same."

Geez, talk about a Strawman argument. I never heard anyone make that assumption.

I made that assumption earlier in this thread. @atmasphere was referring to that post. I'm happy to fess up (I was oversimplifying).  

and +1  @alpha_gt . I think the record wear argument about LPs is overblown.  If it happens, it's simply too slow to have any major effect on my listening habits.