Analog or Digital and why?

Analog.

I've been buying records since the 70's, and have always concentrated on early/first pressings, and will upgrade to better condition or earlier pressings whenever I have the opportunity.

I've got over 3000 records, and whenever the "Latest/Greatest" digital gear comes out, I demo them with the best digital copy I can find to  an original/early pressing of the same recording.  Invariably I prefer the analog.

Same goes with "audiophile pressings".  I guess they're just fine if I can't locate an original, but they're usually not up to the original, especially if the remastering is done in the digital domain.

I have nothing really against digital.  It would be nice if the convenience of digital would come with sound closer to analog.  I listened to digital at work (headphones and an Onkyo DP-X1A) before covid and in the car.  Now that I'm working from home, I haven't used a digital source except in the car.

Suppose you, meaning everyone, have everything in your system the way you want it--amps, preamp, stands, power, cables, speakers, subs, the room. But, you need a source, a front end---don’t have one at all, have to start fresh, don’t even have albums or CDs. Let’s say you have an amount worthy of your system to spend--say $35K to allow for various levels of gear, but you have to buy everything that is needed to play music, minus the albums, CDs, streamers, etc. You have a separate allowance for music, let’s say. Would you go with vinyl or digital?

This is a great question!

Assuming I had my current knowledge of what both media are capable of, I would find another hobby to put that 35K into and just stream digital through my phone over my HT systems.

Not that you can't build a satisfying analog hardware system for 35K, the problem is the software.  A lot of the current issues/reissues are digital masters or are digital remasters, which kind of defeats the purpose of using them to cut records.

Vinyl was supposed to be dead in the 80s when the cd came out.
In the 90s when Dvds came out.
in the 00s when Napster and other sharing services were king.
In to 10s when streaming services and HD streaming got big.

Reports ov vinyls death are greatly exaggerated.

Another case of vinyl envy ;).