[sleepless]

Well, I think the quality is in your ears...and yours alone.

Some "hear" different things-we have aural preferences that are unique.

Although I prefer Vinyl over digital, I have my own very unscientific reasons for justifying:

1. Speakers are analog
2. Vinyl is analog...seems a natural match
3. Vinyl has a "warmth" that is missing in digital. I can't really can't define warmth, but it is a obvious difference that I hear.
4. It is the same difference between using tube amps vs. solid state, you lose something when you take those little lit-up, heat producing tubes out of the equation.
5. I recently bought a DAC along with an external amp for a set of good headphones, and I must admit, this sounds great out of my computer.
6. But nothing (and I spent way too much looking) comes close to Abbey Road, side 2, running through my 1974 McIntosh tube amp...wish I could explain why!!
7. On the other hand, I can't take any sizeable music collection with me when I travel (and I do alot)...so there is nothing that compares to my rockboxed iPod or my laptop using again a DAC with a portable amp...into in-ear canal headphones. When I'm crusing at 34,000 feet, I feel like I'm in my living-room...the sound is quiet and very sweet...

Probably a little elementary for this thread, but that's my opinion...