would imagine that everyone on this board has a different system and that all these systems sound completely different. Sir T mixes on a system that is also different than any one of us has. I would imagine that his monitors don't sound like your stats, so it would be a complete surprise if what he hears in his studio would be what you hear in your home.
One can have a different presentation, but no less quality from that presentation. My Dunlavy system's presentation is very different than my ATC system. However sound quality wise, they are equal in every way. The system in my signature has all of its front speakers built into a Baffle wall(no rear reflections), and has a completely different presentation than my Thiel CS-3.7 multichannel system. Sound QUALITY wise, both are very good. Presentation difference does not necessarily mean less sound quality....just a different presentation.

I concur that higher word sizes and bit rates should sound better and at some point put vinyl to shame, but that's not living in the real world that most people have access to, nor is it supported by recording companies that mass produce what we find in the stores.
Those stores are disappearing faster than we can breath. Based on that, you need to look elsewhere to find the Easter egg. If you like Classical or Jazz, there are a dozen or so download sites that have quite a bit of 24/88.2 and 24/96khz downloads of those gene. This my friend is the new real world. Gone is most of the brick and motar stores you speak about, and hello to downloading of music. I have 10 terabytes of high resolution music on my music server. The distribution of music is rapidly changing, and during this transition, you have to look for the quality nuggets - they are not going to fall into your lap.

Sir T's remark, "Vinyl lovers choose the disc because of its euphoric qualities, and some sort of physical romance with it. That is it.", implies that your friends 600 pound turntable is less accurate than his CD player. Do you agree with this?
The weight of the turntable is absolutely irrelevant in this case. How do you make this statement without even knowing what kind of CD player I own? Assumptions are not better than facts.

The very nature of a needle touching a vinyl record introduces distortion. It is the same with the cassette and any other media where something touches something else. When you compare the original analog tape with the first vinyl pressing and the QC CD, the CD wins because it does not add anything like the vinyl record does. With vinyl all of these wonderful sonic qualities come out that were not apart of the original master. More midrange bloom, exaggerated separation, the softening of transients are just some of the things you hear when you actually have something to compare vinyl to. Audiophiles do not like neutral sound, or they would not pick vinyl as their listening choice. They enjoy the "euphoric" coloration it imparts, and that is what vinyl folks are looking for - not boring neutral sound quality.