A brand-new vinyl, preferably heavy grade, is always gonna sound best, provided it's played on good equipment. But unfortunately, one just isn't able to play the record album all that many times before the natural dynamism resulting from the peaks and valleys of the groove starts to get worn.
And sometimes, records somehow start to sound better with a little (but not too much) wear. It's my understanding that real archivists and audiophiles get the vinyl and make copies to reel to reel, cassette, or nowadays, lossless wav copies to cd-r or dvd-r, and play those; and they just store their record albums with the associated care necessary.
Although, as is the case with any medium, there can be serious differentiation due to manufacturer quality, a cd played on good equipment sounds great as well.
On the b-side (flip side), nothing lasts forever anyway. The best medium available is gold-plated cd-rs, and they are expensive.
But if you really love an album, I suppose it's worth the investment to rip the vinyl lossless into the computer and put it on gold-plated cd-r as soon as you buy it.
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