Re: yeah, but vinyl vs. CD?
The sound of vinyl is way ahead of CD (listen to the MFSL Beatles collection on vinyl for a start) but you do need a decent system to play them on. My record player alone cost a fortune (SME 20/2/V arm/Koetsu) but you forget about the money when you have the musicians in the room. Equal priced CD player is good but bears no comparison. Proved this to so many friends I have lost count; all agree the vinyl is better after 5 minutes of listening. Same goes for watches. My Heuers are more pleasing and fun to wear than Rolex, Brequet or Patek but people do not understand. Jacked in my Porsche 996 and went back to the 993 as it a better car - not quite as quick but far more satisfying to drive.
New does not mean better and more accurate does not necessarily give better results. All about passion, so yes there is a correlation in answer to the original question.