The sound difference between vinyl and digital is debatable. There's is a lot of nostalgia with vinyl, and it's album art.
Vinyl does have an Achilles' heel, playing songs deteriorates the sound over time. If you don't mind the pops, clips, and wows, who cares?
You may want to look into it deeper. Almost all music production today uses analog to digital encoding before storage, editing, and processing. Virtually 100% of pressing master creation is done from digital storage - and that include nearly all re-releases of classic records.
There may be truly analog "artisan" exceptions, but vinyl records today are basically a scam unless you are playing near-new-old-stock analog records from decades ago.
P. T. Barnum must be having a jolly old laugh down there.
But there are those album covers and their art, the nostalgia factor, esthetics in general, and classic analog pressings in vinyl or shellac.
My belief, based on my experience, is that in reality there is no discernible difference in sound quality between CD (digital) and Vinyl. BUT - they're not the same.
There are a lot of bits and pieces that go into making and releasing music today, and as
@dilettante mentions, it's unthinkable at this point to make an album where it doesn't go down to digital somewhere in the chain. People wanting an "all analog" experience are not only exhibiting wishful thinking, but when they can get it they're paying through the nose for it. I'm talking 5X normal album prices.
So if there's no discernible difference, how are they not the same? Well, there is one vital step in the process that goes beyond the quality of the recording and even musicianship - the mastering. Vinyl has a lot of constraints. For example, the more heavy the bass, the less music you'll get on a side. The outer tracks (the 1st, 2nd, tracks) have a better bass response than the inner (last) tracks. Then of course, you have the overall constraint of approx 25 minutes per side. Exceed that, and quality drops off.
Digital has none of these constraints. It was a brave new world without constraints other than a (at first) 74 minute running time per CD, later extended to 80+ minutes. CD's doesn't have to worry about grooves, and physicality. We should all have benefited greatly from this, but we didn't.
Anyone who follows music will have heard of the "Loudness Wars". Essentially, instead of bathing in the greater dynamic range digital offers, the industry went the other way and reduced it. Why? Because by compressing the music it can, at first, sound my dynamic, impactful, and energized. This is great on your Smartphone, but from an audiophile perspective, you're actually damaging the music.
You cannot use the same level of compression on Vinyl. If they pressed those masters that had been highly compressed, the record would skip and jump.
So, when it comes to any release - you MIGHT get a good digital release (streaming/CD), or more likely, you'll get a compressed master. On Vinyl, it'll be a quieter, less compressed master through necessity. This is the reason buying Vinyl today is the better option if you want the very best sound. I don't think Vinyl is inherently better, but the reality is, Producers and Mastering Engineers have helped destroy the digital experience.
That said, some music is a better experience in digital. I'm thinking of Brian Eno's Ambient works. In fact, any piece of music that uses silence as an intrinsic part of the experience.
Oh the pain, the pain. (Dr. Smith, Lost in Space)
