O......k.....wellll... I guess until someone removes listener bias with a real double-blind test, we are really just flogging the demised equus ferus.   Oh, wait, I did that once.  The test, not the flogging.   Posted about it here, even.  But <heavy sigh> I don't think anyone cares, so I'm...

Perhaps just the slightest exaggeration here?  Ever actually heard a 56kbps mp3?   Unless the vinyl were ripped to a 56Kbps mp3, there's actually no way it could sound like one.  But it does sound like you need to get control of the ripping process.

  Nah, you were limited by preamp noise and mic self noise.  People been doing that for decades, even pre-digital. You needed a dead-quiet LDC, and a decent pre, and 16 bits woulda worked.

  You're killin' me!!!

I love a theoretical discussion as much as anyone right up until the theoretical position paints the practical position as "wrong", because that makes everything, analog and digital, "wrong" and fatally flawed.  While true in the absolute, it's far from the reality we deal with every day.  I...

  Seriously over-thinking what "time delay" is.  I didn't say "group delay".  Fractional sample delays?  Really, no need.

Time delay would be an exception. SQ is unaffected in any measurable way. ...and until we start recording and producing recordings for some other being, the human factor is all that really matters.

  I did not recommend either, as I have no basis to do that.     The folks at headphone.com have tested them, and I trust their data. If you prefer to trust what "many people" say, thats up to you. How do you know the Air's output is 4x the power of iPhone?   You could calculate the...

These should answer your questions:   http://www.headphone.com/headphones/yuin-pk1.php   http://www.headphone.com/headphones/yuin-pk2.php

Yeah, sorry, I'm sure it is to somebody.     I've always considered consumer line level to be -10dBu, which I guess is about .25V, but anything near by...   They're using 0dBV now, so that places -10 at .316 Vrms, a whopping 2dB difference.  It doesn't matter a lot, because in recording...

2.2V?  I dunno.  It showed up in a spec the OP posted.  It's like 2V with a little headroom. Aren't bigger numbers better?

  2.2Vrms, RCA = consumer level for consumer equipment (and refers to the MAXIMUM undistorted output level)   We need to forget the relationship of balanced=2x unbalanced.  It only applies to a portion of circuit design, not at all to product design.     For product design, if the balanced...

  Uh-huh.  That's what I'm sayin'....

  This makes perfect sense.  6.8Vrms is about +19dBu, which is +15dB above studio reference level of +4dBu.  That would be a normal "Professional" output level, and would match perfectly to a console's balanced line level input.   I used to build line amps that would clip at +21dBu, and...

  Right.  So let's add three bits of dither to 24 bit data containing a digitized analog noise floor of -90dBFS.  And what would be the result?   While we're at it, lets measure the result with that pesky A-weighting filter.   And, if you don't mind being in the real world, lets look at what...

  Heaven.  Sheer heaven.

  Pretty sure you got it, but just in case: two different reference levels, one for SE, one for balanced.  They are standards based on the market each serves, and have nothing to do with simply changing to a different output configuration.     Ever heard of a balanced output at .00123 volts...

  Sure, but "in practice", it's mostly below the noise floor of the original analog original and A/D.  We're doing that theoretical vs practical thing now.   It's why a lot of original material is recorded at 24 bits, run through post at 24 bits, then down-sampled to 16 bits for release. 

Ah, yes, they finally did it. There's been talk of laser playback of records since the 80' (I think there was an expensive prototype then).  Clearly the way to do it.  Their samples are impressive.   I'm right behind you...in line...at the bank....

  This is what I would expect.  There should be no audible difference between the two.  

Yes, if the noise added is significantly below the noise floor of the original, it can be considered negligible. Not all processes in the digital domain add noise.  All processes in the analog domain, with the exception of complimentary noise reduction systems, add noise.

And doesn't the word "balanced" have a nice warm and pure feeling to it? Who wouldn't want to be balanced?     Doesn't "unbalanced" sound just horrible?  "Single Ended" just sounds sort of prejudiced somehow.  Love the terms, though. "Star-Quad" is just wonderful!

The effects of record wear are documented, one report is here.  The report shows the results of 100 plays of a test record with various tracking forces and stylus shapes.  In some cases, harmonic distortion went down (over 30%), in others it went up (as much as 66%).  But the point its, records...

Marketing product features and variations.

Agreed.  But analog is also an abstraction of real-world, and is also only an approximation. Oh, that's been asked, fundamentally, during the development of digital recording.  And, we have our answer, been using it for some time.  The test is if someone can discern a signal passed through...