I'll refer you back to the photo. Every time it plays, it is different. Highs and lows (surface features), get smoothed by the needle, corners get knocked off, and gradually the sound degrades (not so gradually, by the way). On a level of the magnification of the photo, it is plain to see that sound reproduction is going to be poor. Electronics can only stifle the hiss, and pop, and scratchy sounds of a needle abrading the groove smoother, which further muddies the sound. Records were made from tapes, through a analog mixer, hand mixed by an engineer who did it mostly by ear (and had been doing it for years, which meant his hearing was degrading as he got more and more skilled), Then came Digital tape recording, then direct to digital, with a digital readout, so that sound could be visually corrected, limited only by how many channels you divided up the spectrum. Digital recording CAN produce the most fidelity of all mediums of reproduced music or sound in general, depending on how it is mixed. What so called "audiophiles" (read that as "vinyl cave people") decry is missing tonal variances, and that is usually up to the engineer. He can capture it all, and it can be reproduced pretty well, provided the mixing board is high enough quality. One of my brothers was a tech at Bose, and the rest have been in the music industry and performers for decades. So, yeah, I know what I am talking about.
Incidentally, you are correct. Vinyl cannot be matched by anything else, It is the worst possible method of sound reproduction and no beeter than a Victrola, until you attach a bunch of high end electronics to it. Nothing else is as bad.
