Analog invites you to turn up the volume

Lot's of variables including the quality of source components (obviously), but my take on this is, that vinyl is natively analog. No DAC. No square waves converted to sinusoidal. So it sounds better, especially loud.

Case in point - I recently listened to a $350K Nagra system with Wilson speakers. That price included a Nagra TT but we were listening to the DAC.

It sounded super detailed, crystal clear, and effortlessly powerful. But after a few minutes I thought this is cool but no way I'd listen to it for a long session at home. Never mind loud.

Just my 2 cents.

When it came in printed format, I used to read UHF Magazine (originally Hi-Fi Sound), a Montreal-based journal. The editor had a bee in his bonnet about the idea that if you constantly felt the need to turn up the volume there was something less than ideal in your system. Well, just as a cigar is sometimes just a cigar, I think that sometimes it just sounds so good I want more!

Either vinyl or digital can be optimized for superb sound.  No way a basic digital rig can compare with an optimized  vinyl setup, and visa versa.

Different sources sometime play louder, or, less loud, at the same volume levels, just like sometime volumes levels change from track to track.  I found that streamed music on my audio rig sounds just as satisfying to me at loud volume levels as my CD or vinyl set-ups ever did.  Happy listening.       

The overall presentation characteristics are created by your equipment not the media. Each leg, digital or analog is a chain of electronics that produce the characteristics you hear at the end. One can sound exceptionally better or worse or different depending on that chain.