It depends on the LP or CD. There are vinyl recordings that sound awful and ones that sound great. Same with CD recordings. Some CD recordings are phenomenal. Dick Hyman Plays Fats Waller - Direct-To-CD is as close to live as one might ever hear. Yes it is a CD.
I think where this gets tricky is when you have a CD and a vinyl of the same recording. If the vinyl is brand new and the best pressing done from the batch - possibly an early pressing you may find the LP sounds better. However every time you play the vinyl you are shaving some of the fine detail off of it.
Perhaps a better question would be - can you hear the difference between a new vinyl and a digitized recording of that same vinyl. Using a fancy Benchmark ADC1 A-to-D I "record" my records. So far I have not had 1 person able to hear the difference between the LP or the Digital file. And I have a very accurate system - full range electrostatics, Benchmark mono-blocks etc.
I like to tell people there are different types of playback systems. One type is the analytical reference system - this is what I have in my studio / playback room. The other is a performance system - this is what I have in my car - it doesn't actually act as a playback reference it creates its own performance. So for some things the music actually "sounds better" in my car! But that is because the car is hiding shortcomings and exaggerating other things. Sort of the same way a guitar amplifier and speakers are part of the music not a playback component.
So to get back to your question... If the music you are listening to is only available on an old LP then that is what you have to listen to. Conversely if only available on CD then there you go.
I have three music sources in my system:
A turntable, a CD player and my computer.
I have three playback systems:
My good one in my studio.
My car.
My iPhone with headphones.
Given the fact that I don't have a turntable in my car or iPhone it reduces the choices down to digital.
I think where this gets tricky is when you have a CD and a vinyl of the same recording. If the vinyl is brand new and the best pressing done from the batch - possibly an early pressing you may find the LP sounds better. However every time you play the vinyl you are shaving some of the fine detail off of it.
Perhaps a better question would be - can you hear the difference between a new vinyl and a digitized recording of that same vinyl. Using a fancy Benchmark ADC1 A-to-D I "record" my records. So far I have not had 1 person able to hear the difference between the LP or the Digital file. And I have a very accurate system - full range electrostatics, Benchmark mono-blocks etc.
I like to tell people there are different types of playback systems. One type is the analytical reference system - this is what I have in my studio / playback room. The other is a performance system - this is what I have in my car - it doesn't actually act as a playback reference it creates its own performance. So for some things the music actually "sounds better" in my car! But that is because the car is hiding shortcomings and exaggerating other things. Sort of the same way a guitar amplifier and speakers are part of the music not a playback component.
So to get back to your question... If the music you are listening to is only available on an old LP then that is what you have to listen to. Conversely if only available on CD then there you go.
I have three music sources in my system:
A turntable, a CD player and my computer.
I have three playback systems:
My good one in my studio.
My car.
My iPhone with headphones.
Given the fact that I don't have a turntable in my car or iPhone it reduces the choices down to digital.