Nothing beats cracking open up a new CD, popping it in the player and having a mosh. When you rip CDs, the quality is superb too, which is a bonus.
Nothing beats pulling the LP off the shelf, removing the full-size cardboard jacket from its protective sleeve, placing the LP on the turntable, and setting the stylus just at the opening groove.
I probably have 1K LPs and twice that many CDs, and consider the LPs to be "permanent" and the CDs "temporary" - maybe a couple of decades at most.
A few years ago, my sister asked me to rip our family's favorite Christmas LPs (about half a dozen from the 1950s-60s). The one that we played the most, year after year, was an old mono LP dated 1955. It has been played hundreds of times on horrible equipment, yet it played straight through without a skip and with minimal surface noise. I was astonished, but gratified that such ancient media could perform so well after half a century.
Try that in the year 2050 with a CD.
Besides, I believe that since sound waves, all real musical instruments, and the human ear are 100% analog phenomenon, a mechanical analog storage and reproduction system makes the most sense.
And no, I don't have all tube amplifiers, but I would like to, one day. My 2 record-playing rigs are mid-grade 1980s gear, in excellent condition.
Having said all that, I love to be able to sit at my computer and listen to any of my music in seconds, through my high-end sound card and multi-speaker rig with decent woofer.
And, in case you are wondering, my collection revolves around 1950s-60s-70s jazz and rock, mostly progressive, psychedelic, and avant-garde, with a fair amount of modern classical and blues tossed in for good measure. I have almost no music after about 1990, and virtually everything is also in .MP3 format.
