The directness of R2R tape is not captured by digital atm. Vinyl is inferior to R2R period. Vinyl has it own drawbacks (pops, crackles, noise, channel separation, sub bass) but is the second best analog source. Digital is getting there (for example MSB/DCS) . In the CD-era (80's & 90's) 70% of the analog qualities were captured. With Hi-Res we are getting at 80-90% I think. It's enjoyable and easy to consume though.
The character of analog and digital
Having just obtained some high quality analogue components, I want make some comments on the character of both analog and digital.
First of all it’s very difficult to speak of analog in general. Records vary widely (indeed wildly) in sonic character and quality. Digital recordings are much more uniform. When you play a digital file you more or less know what your getting. Of course some sound better than others, but there is a consistency of character. With records, it’s the Wild West. Variation in SQ and character are rampant.
Therefore it becomes very difficult to make generalizations on which categorically sounds better.