+1 @ghdprentice Eloquent and accurate as always. I would only add that I find some very early digital masters suffer compared to vinyl. To generalize, I find these are often albums where the original analog master was not well engineered and the problems exacerbated by early digital mastering techniques. As you do, I find streaming recent “digital remasters” equivalent, if not better IMHO than vinyl. Both vinyl and digital show differences in SQ between remasters, reflecting the recording engineers intent during remastering. Streaming gives you the ability to explore all of the remasters published on the service and choose the one you most prefer with no monetary investment other than the service charge as your point out. Most times these differences are subtle, but sometimes not. Sometimes I even find the original low-resolution digital remaster better than the HD remaster. It depends upon the recording engineer’s intent and your personal preference.