Do cd's store a more exact copy of sound than LP's

Seandtaylor99, I think you are right about people getting hung-up in theory, although a good theory is a very practical thing. The implementation is of utmost importance. There are radicals on both sides of the great divide. The little staircase argument is always a good one and leads to the smoothness/continuousness vs. the harshness/ “something is missing in this music” position. Strangely enough if one stops to think about it, the way an LP works can also be thought of as a number of discrete vibrations of a stylus that has to get to some sort of "discontinuousness" at some point.

I agree with Seandtaylor. It is not so much the resolving power of the recording method as the resolving power of the listener! Ex. Visual reproduction using film, which is played back at 24-32 frames/sec looks fully resolved because our eyes can only distinquish discrete frames if played back at slower speeds than 24 frames/sec.

Notice how tactfully I am refraining from this discussion?

Too many times, too many times.

So having said that the theory may not be conclusive, and that the implementation may be the key I would guess that redbook CD would store a more accurate copy of a recording than vinyl.

Now here's my getout clause: I'm somewhat familiar with the imperfections of CD recording and playback, being an EE by trade and having done some signal processing (though not much .. I'm mostly a software guy). Vinyl on the other hand I'm not very familiar with, though I do know that the medium presents physical limitations that require a pre-emphasis/de-emphasis curve, that it suffers from surface noise, and that, like all mechanical systems, it requires very precise setup. Although I enjoy my LPs I've always suspected that this may be due to an agreeable coloration of the sound on an LP, versus the cold, harsh reality of CDs.

At the end of the day I like listening to both sources, though I tend to favour CDs for classical just because of the quiet background. And finally I'm a firm believer that the medium (whether it be CD, vinyl, or horror ... cassette) is less important than the rooms (recording and playback) the quality of the microphones, and the diligence of the engineer.