I enjoy following your posts on your Soundlab speakers and I have never heard them although I have talked with a couple of people with a lot of experience with them I would suggest that even though a show environment isn't the ideal venue for hearing systems or music it does offer a very concentrated opportunity to listen to state of the art systems that provide a very wide range of sound. You might come away from that still loving your system but it might also temper your assertions about how excellent your system sounds in comparison to other high end standards. I also think it is likely you have tailored your system to the genres of music you listen to. As far as I can tell that primarily means classical, choral, and a dose of jazz. One of the nice things about the shows is you do get exposed to a wider range of music although it is still true that most of what is played falls into fairly standard audiophile fare. This is everything I heard at the recent T.H.E. show in Costa Mesa.
https://open.qobuz.com/playlist/32705565 Anyhow, you might decide to spend a day or two at the next audio show that it is convenient for you to travel to and try to maintain an open mind about what you hear.
As for vinyl, well we are 60 pages into this thread that you started so I doubt I have that much to contribute. I will note that I have purchased over 800 records in the past 3 years since I decided to go deep into the vinyl world. The majority of those are contemporary pressings. And I would say my analog setup is at the middish level by the standards of this forum so I'm using a VPI Super Scoutmaster with a Supatrac Blackbird arm, and an Allnic H3000 phono stage. I've tried several phono stages and turntables before settling on this setup and have bought at least a dozen cartridges with retail prices ranging from $1000-5000. Clearly it would be possible to have a better system (and many members of this forum do) but mine is pretty good.
Having said all that, I can confidently say that contemporary vinyl is a very mixed bag. I think 20-25% of the records I buy are notably better than streaming through a reasonably good setup (Innuos Pulsar and Holo May KTE DAC with upgraded cords and power). Another 20-25% are better if you listen closely. 35-45% are essentially the same as streaming, and 10-15% are noticeably worse. And the first time I play a record I do stream at the same time and compare in real time level matched in order to form these impressions. Despite ultrasonic cleaning, many contemporary records are plagued by pops and crackle. I also don't buy the very expensive MoFi or AP pressings both for budget reasons but also because it is largely classic rock that I don't listen to much. Some labels like Rhino High Fidelity and Verve Acoustic Sounds are uniformly excellent but not much of my listening falls into the kind of records they reissue. Older vinyl is a whole different thing and if you can find quiet pressings at reasonable prices they often sound startlingly better than their digital equivalents. I mostly don't listen to older music so that is less relevant to me.
My conclusion after pursuing this journey more aggressively and thoughtfully than most is almost all aspects of audio are quite nuanced. There is no "absolute sound", preferences vary wildly, even with an unlimited budget high end systems often sound more different than alike, and there is always more to be had but diminishing returns are real. As for vinyl, despite its frustrations and limitations, I still find that the 40-50% of records I purchase that sound better than streaming justify the expense etc. but a blanket assertion that vinyl is better than digital is simply wrong.
