Come on, 99.99% of people would not notice any diffirence between mp3 version and CD. At least mp3 from online stores. I'm not in that 0.01% part of the world, so as soon I'd get a leak, I will listen to it, although my iTunes pre-order waits me on 16-th March and deluxe CD will arrive a month later.
It's just the whole experience.. The smell of the booklet, putting the cd into the player, sit down with a cuppa coffee, and then just listen in great quality (because you do hear the difference, cd is much warmer than an MP3) if I speak for myself I rather have cd quality. If you listen close on a good system you can hear. Yeah LE, I agree with you. The struggle, I hope it continues long!
I know it's a very, very tough discussion on mp3, but I remember the day I listened 'Get Lucky' for the first time. It was early august summer night (because the album leaked almost a month prior to its release), I was on holiday in the country, so what I did, I climbed on the roof that night, with my trusty mp3 player and good headphones and listened whole album under clear night sky and stars. And I actually cried on 'Piper to the End'.
Now that was an experience I should say. I could listen it on a vinyl, but it's hard to get vinyl so early, and bring it on the roof lol!
And now, every time I hear 'Hard Shoulder' or anything from Get Lucky I remember me sitting on the roof that night and listening.