Last thing I want to do is resuscitate the old debate on analog vs digital sound. But last week my kids found my old turntable in a closet and for the fun of it we hooked it up. I hasn't been run in at least ten years. We pulled out a bunch of old records and tried it out. Now this is weird: IT SOUNDS BETTER. And I have a fairly high end CD/stereo system.
The first record I played was one of the greatest ever recorded (yeah, I know, it's all subjective)--"A Space in Time" by Ten Years After. I also have the CD version. The difference was immediately obvious. In spite of the rice crispy effect that we all loved to hate (snap crackle pop) on the record, it was overall a smoother, more realistic, fuller sound.
Hey we can't go back in time and digital is here to stay. All I'm saying is, it was interesting.