LP made from a digital master recording...

I don't know why so many still listen to vinyl.  I am not in to hearing the noise of the needle tracking in the groove.  I think CD's sound much better.  They sound much crisper in my opinion.  However, I now can't understand why anyone would bother to play CD's when streaming is now available.  It is so convenient to sit on the sofa and select songs by way of a cell phone,  I would have to pay a fortune for CD's to match the size of the library TIDAL offers,  And then, there is MQA.  I do think I hear a better sound stage when I listen to MQA recordings.  However, maybe I am trying to convince myself this to be true.

I do love the looks of a $30,000 turn table.  However, I am not filthy rich like many of you in this group.  The looks do make a statement that's for sure.  This would be a great way to impress a neighbor.  

I listen to vinyl because I enjoy music. As you said CD doesn't sound like music it sounds "crisp". Music doesn't sound "crisp" it sounds like music. So the tradeoff is a little noise along with the music, or noise. I'll take music.

When an LP is pressed from digital...it is played back as a continuous waveform. That might be a benefit of vinyl. If you listen to a record the 2nd time, it will not be the same performance as the first. With digital it will be the same the 2nd, 3rd and 100th time...for good and bad.

My non-scientific guess, is that when the vinyl plate is cut by the cutter head, there is some loss and gain in the detail/fidelity but also it is now a continuous format. The cartridge is a dynamo that will reinterpret the music.  Think of redrawing something rather than scanning something.

When you play vinyl it's sort of an original performance each time, isn't it?

No more so than with CD. You think its the same only because you think. Because if you listen you will find it is not. Running a demagnetizer over the CD before playing, for example, it will sound a lot better. But only for a while. Within several minutes the effect, whatever it is, dissipates. Probably static but whatever, that is not the point. The point is you think its always the same simply because its digital. Two things wrong with that. First, its not digital.

And second its not the same.

That’s not me theorizing and pontificating. That’s me listening and reporting. At the time I discovered the demag trick I mentioned it to a friend and he noticed the same thing once he paid attention and listened for it.

This question of yours it seems to me it strikes you as somehow new and original. Its an original performance each night. Every single night when I turn my system on it first goes through changes as it warms up. Then even after the amp is warmed up when I start playing a record same thing happens with the cartridge and phono stage. Then even once those all get warmed up and fairly stabilized the entire system continues to improve. Which at this point the rate of change slows to where its hard to determine whether its the system improving or the power supply. Because listening late into the night it just gets better and better.... until dawn is approaching and then its getting worse again. Which it could be the system is continuing to improve (likely), but not by as much as the power is getting worse. Or it could be the system stopped improving (unlikely, this takes more than 24 hours) and now the power is getting worse.

A couple salient points to keep in mind then. One, nothing is ever twice the same. And two, you can hear it. Well, technically I can hear it. We don’t know about you. And three, CD or LP, arbitrary choice. Same is true for the phono stage, amp, speakers, wires, outlets. Your choosing LP and CD is totally arbitrary. Its the same for everything.

When I go to the modern day stores that happen to sell records ie Newbury comics....I go straight for the used record section. In my experience most if not all the newly released lp’s sound like crap....if I can find a nice used record that appeared to have been well cared for then that’s what I come away with at end of day, plus I still have some cash for lunch.....😁👍....as far as CD'd go, I still collect them as well. To me, some sound fantastic ie Norah Jones come away with me....and some just sound aweful...bright, overbearing, unnatural etc etc....there is something magical when it all comes together, and for me that mostly only occurs via playing a true analog lp. As the guy from better records says, pure tubey magic...or something to that effect... lol.