is the sound of vinyl due to the physical process of the turntable?

cleeds
Let me clarify, as you are mistaken. (please check my website, this is what I do daily for a living)
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In actual practice, the level of vinyl is moderated by the medium. The length of a side and the low end needs of a side, etc. Decades of vinyl cutting has always been about not just a better sounding cut BUT ALSO A LOUDER ONE. That’s part of that craft 100% because a bad cut will create vinyl products that do NOT track on all systems. Stylus quality varies, wildly.
At the same time, Limiting of the digital variety, square waves, do not cut well at all and sound small on playback from vinyl, and so vinyl premastering (if done digitally as it is in the last 20 years or more) is ALWAYS LESS LIMITED by the mastering engineer, because it sounds better cut to vinyl that way. Digital has gotten louder and louder, less RMS to Full Scale.

So for example, if we had a digital release with say -12 to -6 dbfs average and 0 or -0.5 dbfs peak (true peak over 0 with ISP intersample peaks is normal) that digital release WOULD NOT be sent to vinyl cutting AS IS.
A unique premaster would be used, with no limiting on it. This premaster would then be up to the skill of the cutter to get it as loud as possible. This is the physical limitation of vinyl that results in MORE DYNAMIC RANGE in nearly every vinyl release as compared to it’s digital counterpart.

More punchy = more musical = better.

... vinyl media DEMANDS MORE DYNAMIC RANGE. Vinyl is more punchy because it has to be, else the stylus jumps the groove. Digital can be compressed and limited to a pancake of white noise. This means that NEARLY EVERY vinyl record is more punchy than it’s digital counterpart ...

That is completely mistaken. An LP can be cut with the same squashed dynamic range as any other media. What can make a stylus jump a groove are large excursions, such as loud cannon shots on some versions of Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture. If your stylus jumps a quiet groove, there is really something amiss with your setup.

3 things ...

We have to look at the whole recording process. And we have to look at the limitations of vinyl that give it an advantage, and then finally the distortions of vinyl vs digital.

1. The recording process of vinyl era records is usually great players, in a room, playing mostly together. Vocal takes are mostly live. Engineers were experts and decisions were made in real time, building MUSICAL MOMENTUM. Today decisions are not made in real time by most engineers who are not as experienced, and vocals like everything else are done in pieces and edited together. LESS MUSICAL MOMENTUM. So vinyl era records are INNATELY MORE MUSICAL aka "sounds better" with more real instruments, not in the box instruments. And often the recording was to tape, then to vinyl, never a digital stage.

2. The vinyl media DEMANDS MORE DYNAMIC RANGE. Vinyl is more punchy because it has to be, else the stylus jumps the groove. Digital can be compressed and limited to a pancake of white noise. This means that NEARLY EVERY vinyl record is more punchy than it’s digital counterpart and that "sounds better".

3. The vinyl distortions are in the same family as tape distortions, although different. This is not the family of digital distortions. They are more pleasing. Or "sounds better"
As a mastering engineer I prefer my own work on digital as I grew up on vinyl and I put those vinyl era musical qualities into my digital work, yet I fully understand the appeal, especially with classic records that were built straight to vinyl.
Brian Lucey www.magicgardenmastering.com