LPs tend to have better mixing/mastering (or are selected from good recordings to start with). Poorly recorded very low quality LPs won't sell since currently it is only audiophile market while CD will sell no matter how bad as long as music is popular. As Muralman said there are some exceptional CDs showing that media has potential and can challenge many LPs. Audiophiles don't have any buying power in CD sales and cannot influence quality of recordings. The only reason, in my opinion, for pushing better sounding schemes like HDCD or SACD was to bring very strong copy protection. SACD doesn't cost more to print than CD but they felt that charging 100% more is OK.