You might have a point, psyprof1, but believe it or not, what sounded "otherworldly" were CDs—particularly those new Sly and the Family Stone pressings. The store, though tiny, also has a decent number of digital offerings, and the clerk and I were actually marveling at what a stupendous job Sony did of remastering the Sly stuff. He confessed to sometimes reflexively preferring vinyl, but said he felt this was one of the rare times that there was hardly a discernible difference.

On the flipside of that, though, the other day I played the vinyl and CD versions of tunes from the Jimmy Giuffre 3's 1961 at home for my wife, and the difference was audible instantly. What most surprised me was that the LP and CD came from the same reissue/remastering initiative in 1992, and yet the vinyl was still more revealing, louder and enveloped the listening area better.