Quote:Digitizing the vinyl would produce the same sound as the original vinyl.  I can't "really" prove that, or disprove what someone else is hearing, but music meant for vinyl records is mastered differently than music for digital medium.  So before it even gets to the record the sound is different.  I'm pretty sure digital releases could be made to sound exactly like vinyl, but it doesn't sound like that by choice.  If I were to believe that somehow vinyl is "superior" to another medium, I would have to believe that a vinyl record could reproduce the sound of the medium that it is "superior" to, which is clearly not the case.  

 

Actually it wouldn't.  Any form of sampling (which digitizing is) necessarily leaves out information.  Therefor, when digitized music is replayed those missing parts are "guessed" by the DAC (the computer chip responsible for turning the digital information back into an audio signal) so the result is by definition an approximation of the original signal.  For standard CDs (and especially MP3 or AAC formats) this is audible.  In practice the results are a sound that has a harshness that is sometimes referred to as "sizzle".  In addition, the stereo channels are frequently mixed down into a hybrid stereo/mono mix to save space which can make the playback sound muddy.  In some digital formats, this effect is greatly reduced, in particular some of the Blue Ray audio formats and an older format, SACD which comes close to the warmth and sound stage you can get with vinyl recordings.

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