It is not meant to rebut or argue with you, just a a report of my experience with this issue. I have gone through this challenge on several occasions. Sometimes with disc based systems and lately with a computer based system playing high res rips of vinyl albums made on a VPI HRX with a multi kilobuck cartridge. In each case the owner swore that they had a digital system that would finally outperform my vinyl rig. Each time the results have been the same. It took less than 30 seconds into the first song to realize that the digital was just no challenge for my TT with a good clean LP.
Now that said, over the years the digital had gotten better and better and IMO is now at the point where it SQ has advanced such that I would not be unhappy living with a good digital setup at this point. Is it better than the vinyl, not at all, but it is close enough that if I did not have a vinyl copy to compare it to I would not be unhappy with it at all.
Just because digital is not the best does not mean that it does not have its merits and has not earned the right to a place in any good high end system. At the end of the day well done vinyl does sound better, but it is a royal PITA. And digital is easier to find good condition software for. And the SQ is getting much closer between the two, so I can certainly understand why people without a big investment in LPs might opt to go in the digital direction.
Hey, a Maserati is a great car and it is not any less of a car just because a Ferrari is better.