[meglamaniac]

Snurx, pure analog from start to finish is (very nearly, see below) the only circumstance under which vinyl sounds better than digital recording systems.
The reason for this is that it retains high harmonics/reflections/reverbs which CDA discards (CD sample rate is 41,000Hz giving a maximum recordable wavelength of 22,050Hz. However, you can't just slap raw digital audio onto a CD because you get a lot of distortion in the top 2000Hz range because of the higher waveforms that have been "chopped off" - so the top 2000Hz or so are attenuated to eliminate this (known as oversampling). This gives a more effective range of CD audio of 20 - 20,000Hz.

Now yes, technically, human hearing ends around the 20,000Hz mark but that's only an average.
Many people cannot hear the rangefinding clicks made by bats for example, but some including myself can - although this "extra" hearing range is often lost with age. And while you may not be able to directly hear many of the frequencies recorded to vinyl, objects in the room may well pick them up and generate harmonics at a lower frequency.

The digital equivilant of vinyl is Super Audio CD (SACD), which has a sample rate of 200,000Hz and a frequency response of 2 - 100,000Hz (vs. 20 - 20,000Hz offered by CD).
If a recording studio uses SACD certified digital equipment from start to finish, then and only then is it possible to preserve the original clarity of the audio and produce a vinyl product which is better than a CD produced from the same master. However, such equipment is very expensive, and it's about more than just the hardware. Any digital samples used must be recorded at 200,000Hz as well, any mixing software used must support it, etc etc.

Once you skip over the technicalities, the only difference is what audiophiles will call the slightly "warmer" sound of vinyl, which is simply the oddities in playback caused by the degredation of the track, dust, and varying qualities of the stylus and pick-up equipment.

Needless to say, you need to spend a lot of money on amps speakers before you can tell any appreciable difference between the two anyway.


As for vinyl -> MP3, in terms of sound quality you might as well go and buy the CD, as the first thing the MP3 codec does is cut out the extreme high and low frequencies in order to save space.