At what level does analog beat digital?

Wow. I don't know if using dollars is a good way to compare the two. It kinda gets back to one's earlier years when a great...moment...happened. Some measure their moments by what they put into(paid for?) them...others by what they got from them. You can't talk about how much your turn table cost and compare it with what you paid for digital nirvana.

I own an Audio Aero Capitole Mark II Cd player that cost some big-time bucks just to imitate vinyl. It just so happens that I don't really like vinyl. CDs are easy to get and I don't mind paying (too!) much for something that gets me the best of both. Quantifying it just don't work. If it did, Radio Shack would rule, and the Devil to the rest!

I believe it takes a fairly spendy digital system and a lot of attention to detail to beat a moderately priced turntable with a smaller amount of attention to detail.

I think the answer to all of your questions, is yes.

There are a lot of issues involved in the digital vs. analog debate. It is good thing that satisfying systems can be had with both formats, but I firmly believe that it takes less money to acquire a satisfying analog system over it's digital counterpart.

There are a few analog enthusiasts that don't believe a good sounding digital system is even possible. I don't agree with this assessment.

Ok, here goes. First: what is the definition of 'better'? If the definition is 'most natural'(let the riots begin.... :)) analog will - never - beat digital, since analog adds more distortion, offers less dynamics and a more limited frequency responce then , say, SACD. If you define better as 'most listenable'..... well, that's a matter of taste, not of money. Yeah guys, I know there will be hundreds of you out there trying to kill me now, but I'll give you one example. When I worked as a sound-engineer, we once made some recordings of a barbershop-choir. We kept things as simple as possible: two B&K condenser-microphones high in the air (X-Y), fed them into a pre-amp, which had double outputs. One was fed into a Nagra reel-to-reel recorder and, as a back-up, into a domestic Sony DAT-recorder. No dubbing or whatever, just one take and then next song. The DAT beat the Nagra hands-on....... And then, almost all recordings nowadays are done digitally, so even the masters for all those 'audiophile vinyl pressings' are digital........
But I prefer the sound of my turntable over my cd-player most of the time, depending on the records.