i completely get preferring analog media, so if it’s about the sound characteristics (that ‘warmth’), having physical media, etc fair enough. but if the goal of an audiophile is to get the highest quality reproduction of a recording wouldn’t CDs or FLACs be your best bet?
maybe this only really applies for newer music, perhaps digital releases for music recorded analogue are just digitized vinyl or reel to reel recordings but for music produced in DAWs the highest quality version available for that release would surely be either a CD or a digital FLAC release
i dont think this is true… with digital audio you typically have a sample rate of 44.1KHz which is faster than a cutting machine can create variations in the lacquer. sure a digital wave can never equal an analog sound wave but its closer to the original soundwave than the analogue representation of it on the record