I totally understand the preference for tube instrument amplifiers among guitarists and bass players, but remember that those are sound creators, not sound reproducers, making them part of the musical instrument. As such they are not bound by the requirements for accuracy to which good hi-fi audio gear should adhere.
My experience with analog vs. digital reproduction is 180-degrees out-of-phase from LowPhreak's: I've spent more than 50 years on a drum stool, and I've never heard an analog system that didn't render cymbals with more "politeness" than they sound to me in real life. The same goes for violins, brass instruments or anything else that has grit and edge in its live sound. To my ears analog always softens and warms-up these components of these sounds, rendering them more pleasantly, but less realistically. And forget about trying to stuff a real drumset's 80dB+ dynamic range onto a vinyl disk without compression - ain't gonna happen. Of coure, YMMV.
P.S. I loved the book. Should be required reading for all participants in the analog vs.digital debate.