Very cool, thanks for sharing Russ!  I definitely would like to see a return to quality recording myself.

Until a couple of years ago I worked in a company where I was fortunate enough to have people like Polk, Yamaha, Dennon, NHT, etc come in and demonstrate their new products all the time.  I was heavily trained in audio and I'll answer this for you the best I can.

First let me say CD is SUPERIOR overall to vinyl.  One reason is it has unmatched clarity, however with the clarity you get a harsh "bright" sound when compared to analog.  Other reasons are cds are more compact, hold more information, have a longer lifespan.

The advantage of vinyl is it has a "warmer" sound and not as "bright" or "harsh" as a cd.  When a vinyl record is in new condition (after awhile vinyl loses quality because the needle will wear the record, whereas a cd only has a laser reading it) I find it to be a better sound.  It replicates "real life" sound a little more realisticly for the most part.  There are exceptions in my opinion, cds can capture the female voice, strings,  and piano a bit better.  Bass, electric guitar, the male voice and drums seem to benefit more from vinyl.  So if you like classical music or Mariah Carey then it will be tough to beat the sound of a cd.  If you prefer rock or rap you will benefit from the sound of vinyl...UNTIL you play the bass at very high levels, vinyl recordings lose bass quality after a certain db is obtained and will distort quicker than their cd counterpart.  I play my music fairly loud and it isn't an issue for me but you guys who prefer the "boom" of some rap music wouldn't be happy with this one drawback.

Of course this is simply preference just like speaker preference.  Some people prefer "bright" sounding speakers like Infinity while others prefer more "full" speakers like Polk.  It's the same basic thing.  I do lean to the fuller sound of vinyl but my collection is 90% cd.  The biggeset reasons for that is I play most of my music while in my vehicle and the recording process (transferring to other formats) is much easier with a cd.

I guess it's a matter of opinion but I say not really.  It's old bands putting out new albums.  Not "bands of today".  So...where are these bands of today that equal any of those I listed?  I like music from almost all decades from the 60's until the 90's.  However I can't think of even ONE solid band from 2000 up.  If someone has a few they think is equal to the greats that came before I'd love to hear them.  That's not sarcasm, I'm serious.  I am always up for good music.

Good post, it's mind boggling the time and cast that went into this thing.