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

I would have agreed with team vinyl until I heard my CD's ripped and sent to the HiRez DAC's on my Krell.  Seems that CD players are flawed in some fundamental way because what Im hearing is so much better than any one of previous $12 to $16k rigs!

^^^^^

Why are u trying to crash this party Dave_b ?

At least describe the analog kit u were using.

Quick note to dave_b (and no offense here) - 

If you can't understand dragging a rock across bumpy plastic then I would doubt you could appreciate a bow being dragged across the string of a cello.

Seriously - that's what's one of the greatest things about the reproduction of vinyl reproduction is that it works exactly the same way - grooves, friction, vibration between needle and tonearm, resonance = music.

The relationship between record+tonearm+vibration+resonance=music is almost exactly the same as a musical instrument.  

Maybe imperfect BUT

0/1's+laser+software is NOT a musical instrument.

Not arguing which is 'better' but I will say 100% that this is a true statement.  Only difference between a vinyl setup and playing a cello or other analog instrument (reeds, strings, bows, picks, sticks, heads, bells, mallets, vocal chords, mouthpieces, etc.) is amplification.

Stream away - I do

:) 

When I dropped for me what was big bucks on a rig. Went with balanced and full range drivers and the detail began to really come through. If I could have gotten CD to sound better I would have been able to sell off the expensive vinyl setup and pocket a huge chunk of change. But I wanted an honest appraisal so just kept on until I was satisfied that the evaluation was complete, at least in my mind. 
Listener fatigue would set in with CDs to a much greater extent than vinyl. You know, there's no questioning listener fatigue. When it sets in you quit listening. It's not nuances, fine discrepancies or subtle differences. It's cut the rig off and go to bed. With vinyl I stay up too late.