New take on CD vs Vinyl vs CD

I think your results are due in a large part to the level of equipment being used. No offense, but the CDR and CD players being used are not particularly high end. You did not even mention what turntable was used, but an Ortofon Blue is definitely entry level. I believe a comparison such as this demands high end equipment at all points.

Not criticizing what you're trying to accomplish, I did a similar thing 4 or 5 years ago, but using a MoFi gold CD and MoFi Original Master Recording LP of DSOTM.  But, keep in mind what you learn is pretty much useful to only yourself or someone with pretty much exactly the same system.  Upgrade the cartridge and everything changes.  Change CD players and again, everything will probably change.  And as has been pointed out several times, sound levels must be the same or else the louder one will always sound better.  It can be fun to play around like that, but what you learn is probably only useful to you and only for as long as there are not significant changes in your system.

Once you have reference components in your system then you can hear the differences with no problems.  As manufacturers of audio components, we have yet to make digital sound as good as Vinyl period.  That being said, our DACs probably sound better than most Vinyl rigs most have heard.

Happy Listening.

I digitized some lps a decade or so ago, and man it was a lot of work.  The particular recordings used were available digitally and my results couldn’t touch the well done digital versions 

mahler123 hits the nail on the head. And when a rip is done right it will definitely sound better than playing the vinyl. I have about 400 rips and the sound quality is stunning, even in my car on the way to work or running at the gym. Each one took weeks of work. As jDougs says, it's just fun.

Of course the end game is that if your true destiny is the best sound quality possible, then this discussion is a waste of time. Today's HD releases (remasterrs, re-releases, new HD releases) are by far superior to anything you can ever reproduce from vinyl. Just from a frequency response standpoint, case and point: listen to Elton John's 1971 (November I think) Madman Across the Water analog masters straight to digital, in HD FLAC, don't even need the DSD format version for this....now listen to that and we're done here. The vinyl rip is great, but nowhere near as full and rich sounding as this exact copy of the analog masters. 

I enjoy gear and its fun, but I'm audiophile to hear the music I enjoy hearing it in the best possible way, with no budget limitations (from a realistic standpoint). Not listen to music to hear my various gear and convince myself what is best. Great music lifts my day, my evenings, my mood. A little Grateful Dead / Jerry Garcia at "11" and my day is off to a great start.   

Have fun!