audiosavant,
You may simply prefer the euphonic coloration of vinyl playback to digital recording and playback ("euphonic" means "pleasing to the ear") simply because digital produces a more linear--a flatter and smoother frequency response--than the majority of phono cartridges.
The reason this comparison is of an apples/oranges variety is that unless you do a lab measurement, you have no idea of the frequency response variations of a typical phono cartridge, which often yield a slightly rolled-off high end or depressed midrange--softer sounding and more euphonic. But that does not mean analog is "better"; you may simply like the sound of vinyl playback on your cartridge and preamp better. Very few phono cartridges yield linear frequency responses. The reason I recommend the Shure and Grado cartridges is that in the lab measurements performed by AudioScene magazine (I was equipment reviewer for that magazine, and eventually editor of its descendant, Sound Canada and later, Sound&Vision Canada), those cartridges produced almost ruler-flat frequency response from 20 Hz to 15 kHz.
The analog/digital comparisons also ignore magnetic phono preamp response errors, althought better quality preamps tend to be very smooth.
Most analog/digital comparisons ignore the potential errors inherent in analog recording; the comparisons are rarely blind or properly conducted, so your bias emerges.
Here's one to stump you: I have a CD that was burned by Steve Guttenberg (he used to write the occasional "tweak" feature for me when I was senior editor of Audio magazine in New York; now he's a reviewer for Cnet.com and blogger for the latter).
Anyway, he burned a CD for me of the analog output of his ultra-tweak turntable/cartridge/preamp combo. I have some of the same vinyl albums he recorded on the CD. When you sync up the CD of Steve's analog gear to playback of the same tracks directly played from my analog turntable (Shure V15 Type V cartridge and dedicated separate preamp), the CD playback of the vinyl tracks Steve recorded is indistinguishable from the direct vinyl playback. The insertion of the A/D and D/A converters in the digital recording chain adds nothing: no "hard" quality, no degradation whatsoever. It's a straight wire reproduction.
In closing, recording engineers and producers are just as susceptible to psychological bias as the rest of us, unless the comparisons are blind and immediate. Lots of engineers have been convinced by the huckster/promotional skills of Monster Cable and had their studios re-wired. Absurd!
I'm not trying to destroy your enjoyment (or anyone else's) of vinyl playback. If you like it, or prefer it, great. But it ain't better! Technically, it's horse-and-buggy technology compared to digital recording, yet it can work really well (if you can ignore the pitch variations, distortion on inner tracks, compressed dynamics, etc.).
Cheers,
Alan
