When and how did you, if at all, realize vinyl is better?

Building my own components my digital system probably beats most vinyl systems.  But my vinyl system beats my digital system.  Happy Listening.

In 1974 when I bought my first album... Grand Funk / We're an american band. I've bought over a thousand since and still listen most every day. I did have a few year's off in the mid 80's when cd's saturated the market. Never realized how good vinyl really was until about 1996 when I bought a VPI with a rega arm. Since then I've improved the analog portion of my system 10 fold & now get the musicians in my listening room whenever the record allows. Still have digital & it also sounds awesome, until I put a record on. Then the difference becomes clear. More width, depth, space between instruments, & sense of being there. Can't really say that vinyl is an overall better format than digital, just know it is at my house. That said, the analog portion of my system is about 5 times the cost of the digital portion, so it probably should be... Enjoy what you enjoy.

Very romantic idea, but dragging a rock across bumpy plastic is not ideal to say the least.  Recently went to a HiRez Vault DAC streaming source hooked into my Vanguard Digital via MIT Magnum Coax....extremely dynamic, holographic rounded 3D soundstage, airy and human sounding!  Warm and liquid with zero noise.  Technology is finally surpassing the antique tech of yesteryear:)

Unfortunately after  I had traded in my previous turntable and all my albums. Then heard great vinyl set up. Starting from scratch.

Hawkwind's "Warrior On The Edge of Time" fold-out sleeve pretty much proves the point for me as to why vinyl is so so so superior to other formats (the music's great too). Check this YouTube video at about 3mins...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUbe2K3PLro
Try it for yourself, stand in front of the speakers, with the CD version of the CHAOS shield sleeve open (and pretend to be that mighty warrior of lore, standing on the deserted abyss of time, champion of the oppressed but weary after many glorious battles in the mythic psychic wars of olde) ... it just doesn't work like the full-sized LP version ... :-)