The never ending debate over whether vinyl is better than CD or digital encoding is covered bi Idolator in their article Format Wars: Why Buy Digitally Recorded Albums On Vinyl?. To be honest I think this is a debate that will never end. But in the arguments that rage I’ve never heard any consideration that when listening to vinyl it requires a lot more effort and commitment from the listener (got to care for vinyl and handle it with care compared to CD, then you have to swap sides after twenty or so minutes) and as result it is less likely to be just slapped on in the background which is so easy with CD and mp3 etc. When you invest more effort to playing the music you’re probably going to listen more carefully and therefore pick up the nuances more easily.
The other consideration in the debate is the fact that vinyl has gone through faces of production quality changes. Back in the time when CD started coming in the vinyl was lighter (therefore more susceptible to warping and distortion) had more grooves crammed onto a surface. Now with the re-emergence of vinyl the discs are a lot better quality – to the point you’ll see the vinyl weight included in the advertising. With it is also the willingness to split albums across more surfaces meaning that the grooves aren’t jammed together tightly.
Regardless of what is done to settle the argument scientific analysis, blind tests the entire subject will continue to be seen in a incredibly subjective light and never be settled one way or another.
