more larger stereo image?
To my ears, the sound from an LP seems to have a touch of added L-R, even when compared to a CD made directly from the same master tape (e.g. early Jethro Tull CDs). I've no idea whether it's due to the phono cartridge, RIAA equalization, special LP pre-processing, or whatever. Plus the low rumble, feedback from the speakers to the cartridge, clicks, pops, etc. I suspect that the larger difference, by far, is due to the choices made by the recording engineers when the LPs and CDs were produced.
If you prefer that extra L-R "larger stereo image" you can play your CD or MP3 on your computer and dial up (slide up?) the horrid "3D spatial enhancement" slider or whatever it's labeled on your system. For an extreme example of vinyl L-R, dust off your Little River Band LP and cue up "It's a Long Way There" on the turntable. Listen closely to the sound image: there's precious little sound coming from the center. I'm guessing that's mostly due to pre-processing in that specific case, but you can always run your CDs through a processor to make them sound more like your albums if you wish. The Nullsoft Signal Processing Studio DSP plug-in in WinAmp is free and a good place to start.
I don't mean to give the impression that I'm dissing all vinyl. Clean 45 RPM vinyl recordings with plenty of space between the grooves, properly engineered can sound incredibly good. I have a few tracks I've ripped from 45 RPM EPs that sound better than their CD counterparts, but only after I've spent 10-20 hours per track removing the worst of the clicks and pops.
If you could dig up (!) the original recording engineers who produced your favorite LP and give them the original master and a free hand to produce a CD version, which medium do you think would give you the best end result in your listening room? I'll hang onto to the CD version of Adagio for Strings (Thomas Schippers conducting the New York Philharmonic), thanks -- even though I can hear the second violin kick the leg of his chair a couple of times in the CD version :) I know that I'm hearing essentially everything that the composer heard when he was helping on the mixing board.