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

I also appreciate the significant contribution of the ULTRABIT PLATINUM cleaner and treatment for CD's (as do countless others)
Kudos to 
George S. Louis, Esq, CEO, Digital Systems & Solutions
www.audiogeorge.com

yes, GregKohanmin nailed it .

@ptss so true!! I had to return Linn Akurate player because its digital power supply totally f$&@-ed up the rest of my system!  

I got into the lp culture when i was 15 by winning a raffle that gave me 7 lps of my choice. My collection ballooned from there. At university i went to a hifi show and bought my first turntable, amp and speakers. When my engineering friends introduced me to cd i thought it was emperor's new clothes syndrome. CD sounded awful next to my humble set up that was more detailed and had  an obvious vibrant dynamic range advantage compared to the silver discs. I am lucky or perhaps stubborn that i never wavered. Believing my ears even when i was a hifi leper. I often now have friends i went to varsity with with and their silver discs and hi res downloads over for dinner. No comparison and regularly suprise them with a 30 year old lp that is sublime. 

I realised it 53 years ago, later reconfirmed my opinion 37 years ago when CD's and players entered the market in force. I fortunately never "dumped" my record collection for the new format. My 25,000+ collection of LP's is  still growing - perhaps foolishly as I doubt I have enough years left in me to enjoy each and every LP one last time.

I admit I was spoiled when growing up as my parents (modest means) owned a Lenco and I had access to that TT plus a Fisher 500B along with Altecs. During the 60's that'd be considered a great system for an average household. It definitely trained my ear to good reproduction and CD's weren't it. Being a realist however, I do own and have CD's and player but, they are rarely used.