Analog vs. digital

theoretically the analog will win cause signal path is shorter and less dependable on all bunch of decoding and filtering processes. 

Uh, no. You pick one process without discussing the other - the retrieval of music from squiggly grooves, conversion to an EMF, filtering out of subsonic and supersonic interference, noise and distortion inherent to the plastic qualities of vinyl.  You don't get to pick and choose what you pay attention to.

And since most albums are now mastered digitally, even your shorter path is not necessarily valid.

G

let's get real.

For reference, I have a highly resolving system by almost any standard, but am also a design engineering working (as a side gig, and creative outlet) int he field both with branded and contract designs.

Digital  systems, so long as they have no major flaws, will have far more details than ANY analog system.   IN THEORY.  96 dB signal to noise means the smallest signal can be 1/60,000th the size of the loudest.  That defines the level of detail before noise overwhelms it.  Even in a great turntable/vinyl,the noise floor will be 70 dB at best, which is ~ 1/3,000th. No i did not miss a zero or decimal point.

Before you start throwing stones at the egghead engineer who doesn't listen, i know full well and realize that there are lots of things in analog that sound better if and only if the system is good enough.  But make no mistake - you are heading mostly the failings of the digital mastering process, or of some cheap-ass DAC, or, very often you are sadly hearing the results of a recording deliberately made bright and shrill to overcome heading loss (Pete Towshend was famous for this) or the failings of tape and other elements in the recording and playback chain - AM radios int he early days, boom boxes int eh 60s.  There are some fascinating your tube videos with recording engineers about artists over-ruling good engineering advice for more ""pop" and "presence".

Then there are the euphonic vs dissonant distortions. Many analog distortions are hamonically related and sound warm.  Case #1: tubes. Most digital failings are harmonically unrelated (read up your music theory folks) and sound like crap.

So we have tow sets of sonic issues here that can easily become confused as wel listen.  Is that material the record misses?  Or a distortion? Or valid material from a really messed up recording from some old hearing-impaired rocker? or something else.

I suggest hearing digital from a great, old analog recording, well mastered (interestingly, most will be red book, not HD) such as the old verve, blue note or Mercury stuff. Play it on a very good DAC, with a well isolated USB source.  That will lack analog euphinics but will be far more detailed, tighter bass, blah, blah. I didn't say you will always LIKE it better. My opinion: many DACs are amusical as are many systems.  I have a filter designed for my "it may hit the market some day" next gen product with a filter to fight this that i plan to call the "de-nastifier" :-)

Happy holiday to those here in the USA.