OnHwy61, I noticed you've got quite the turntable, far more expensive than my VPI Scoutmaster. You included the evergreen condescention, "spaciousness and warmth" in your description of vinyl : ), let me repeat that __ : )__ but how does one explain vinyl's far better bass in terms of quickness and authority? For example: Durufle's Requiem on Hyperion, (digital '86), has moments where there are soft, low and deep "taps of the foot" on organ pedal in eight-notes, (about two notes per second). No CD player I've tried, up to $3500 is "quick" enough to get them to sound fulsomely and with accurate pitch. On the Hyperion Lp, they are reproduced effortlessly.
Another surprise was what I call "textural differntiation:" the ability, esp. in the octave below middle C on the piano, to separate and sort out different instruments. A stunning example for me is Shostakovich' Symphony #11. I've owned them all on CD since discovering the piece. Having listened to the light tympani strokes in the first mov't for the first time on vinyl, I was stunned to hear that those tympani strokes are accompanied by plucked harp bass notes!
Another surprise was the better "planar imaging:" the better imaging of not only single instruments, but also the placement of whole sections; one can hear groups of Celli separated from Violas and String Basses.
A caveat: I've been sorely disappointed with Columbia and later RCA pressings of just about the whole Classical Catalog, esp. Bernstein and Ormandy. I wouldn't recommend anyone bring these albums to test a turntable! But there are literally millions of clean European pressings that routinely stun my ears, whether digital or analog, even back to '54. I also have NO experience with pop/rock/jazz/soul recordings on CD or vinyl, so my comments are limited to Classical.
