Digital as good or better than YOUR analog?

Sorry to hear that, Psychic. My condolences... Keep trying, you may still be able to get it right! :-)

My redbook digital rig is very good and I enjoy listening to it a lot; my SACD playback is even better. Both of these rigs have substantial advantages in certain areas over my Basis/Graham/Koetsu analog rig, particularly in the areas of bass extension and control and, with SACD, dynamics. But when I want to truly relax, forget about soundstaging, equipment, cables, etc. and get lost in the music, I still turn to vinyl. Can't quantify it, but it's just more involving.

On a more serious note than I indicated to Psychicanimal, but on the same point, I have noticed that as I have improved my analog front end, and as I have listened to more and more of the reissues of classical recordings from the 50s and 60s on vinyl (particularly from Classic Records), the differences between my digital rig and my analog rig have diminished somewhat. The quiet background of digital is being approached by vinyl, as is the bass, but the remastered recordings are beginning to indicate to me that not all the faults of the digital medium are the medium's fault, a good deal of it lies in what's on those tapes. In tonal balance and many other respects, the reissues sound quite similar to their CD counterparts, just a little warmer and with better retrieval of the "tail" and decay of musical notes (something which SACD does even better than vinyl, in my experience, which is one of the rerasons why I'm a fan of SACD). Just an observation; as I said before, I still tend to enjoy vinyl playback a little more, it's my preference for truly relaxing listening.