While I tend to prefer vinyl for several of the reasons mentioned by others, the one that sounds best on my system really boils down to the particular recording. At it’s best, I do tend to feel more like I’m at the venue with vinyl, but I can certainly enjoy CD too.
I’ve got a decent cartridge that’s well matched with the arm on a modest turntable (AT-LP120XUSB with VM95SH shibata stylus...< $400 invested), and am getting better sound from it than I ever expected. At first the TT clearly sounded more detailed to me than my Denon CD440, but after I added a low cost Topping E30 DAC, CDs sometimes sound pretty darn good, depending on the recording. So there’s hope for both.
The rest of your system can make a huge difference how both sound. The clearer it is, the more differences you can hear.
I’ve got a decent cartridge that’s well matched with the arm on a modest turntable (AT-LP120XUSB with VM95SH shibata stylus...< $400 invested), and am getting better sound from it than I ever expected. At first the TT clearly sounded more detailed to me than my Denon CD440, but after I added a low cost Topping E30 DAC, CDs sometimes sound pretty darn good, depending on the recording. So there’s hope for both.
The rest of your system can make a huge difference how both sound. The clearer it is, the more differences you can hear.