"Stewart Pinkerton" wrote in message
...
But most of those you mention are artists of the '50s and '60s - so
their old master tapes are better than any available vinyl.

Not necessarily. Some of the old master tapes are pretty bad, conversely
there are some records around that have never been played. And in general,
vinyl records last much longer without degradation, when not played, than
analog tapes.

Digital on the other hand could be copied from one format to another for
Millenia/Eons (till the next ice age anyway) without ANY loss of quality.

Agreed, with good-quality replay gear. However, where do you find
albums from the '70s that have been played only a couple of times on
high-quality decks?

I have hundreds, so do many others. I used to tape them to R2R and cassette
then store them away in sealed bags. Something I don't need to do now with
CD, thank god. And MANY of my CD's are replacements for those same vinyl
records I still have, and never play. And yes, a few of them are so badly
remastered that I did it myself from the vinyl, rather than listen to the
CD.
But the medium itself is SO much better, that arguing about it is just
amazing, or amusing.

TonyP.