Is there still a need for vinyl?

[suzesiviter]

I miss picking up say an Iron Maiden album and admiring the large artwork, it was all part of the vinyl experience.

[x]

To me, a CD recorded to a quality cassette such as a Maxell XLII or XLII-S on one of my higher end decks provides the most pleasing sound. The recording adds depth and warmth to the music. Of course, this is my opinion.

[warcus]

Vinyl is definitely an experience. It is pleasing to the senses. It's physical, visual, old vinyl records smell a certain way. I don't personally have a vinyl system, I've been all digital since the beginning of my audiophile interest...But I can remember my parents' system and the smell and sights of going through all those vinyls and putting a record on, and the warm midbass sound of those old 60's and 70's bands. To me its like the cigar smoking or pipe smoking of the audiophile world.

It hasn't happened yet, but I know that one day when I am older, the kids are grown, and I have some money to spend...Vinyl will be a component of my "end all" system. There's a perfectly tuned finished basement room, den or man-cave in my future with a high-end stereo system including vinyl just waiting for me to build it...

[justclickin]

Of course there is still a need for vinyl, we all need good flooring! 😜

[TheZooman]

That was a great explanation and very eloquently stated. I enjoy listening to both records and CDs.

[jamesburnett]

By far the most intelligent view of this topic I have ever heard. A thousand "Bravo"s.

[craneywatch]

Thank you very much our dear Paul for your answer. I myself have both digital and analog records. And I enjoy both of them.

[Algabatz]

Listening to Paul gives me the same warm, fuzzy feeling as watching Bob Ross. I've never heard PS Audio products, but now I want to buy them!

[chadbarker]

Thank you Paul. You said it with one answer . It's the music that matters period!

[aussie_philosopher]

Paul I'm with you. I had been working as a recording engineer for years and recently up skilled to work as an acoustic consultant and I noticed from about 2009 onwards were when the biggest advancements in digital audio came about, yes many system sounded pretty good before that but in the last 12 years it's really gotten very good.

[amirjubran]

If digital was mastered correctly it would be better than vinyl. Unfortunately the music industry is mastering digital to sound good in the car and on portable bluetooth speakers. There is a lot of music that sounds best on the Vinyl version, pre-90's music in particular. For convenience's sake I wish this wasn't the case.

[Thebarleymasher]

Vinyl is an old technology but nothing as yet compares. Kind of like comparing film photography with digital, the resolution of 100 plus years old film photos is incredible.

[mjjm]

Its all good, as long as the chain is good. I have streaming, CDs, DVD-A, SACD, BD, Vinyl.
I prefer Vinyl, as long as I want to get up every 15 mins to change sides, LPs.
But one has to do the work for Vinyl to sound good. First and foremost, you have to keep the Vinyl clean. I keep a spray bottle of antiseptic alcohol, brush and lint free rag handy.
Spray the LP as its turning on the platter, then brush it, then dry it. Snaps, Crackles, Pops..gone.... And you most certainly need a good TT/cartridge and phono amp.
I'm not saying one needs to buy a $15K Marantz TT-15S1 ($1499) with the Clearaudio Virtuoso v2 cartridge > Parasound phono amp is an exceptional Vinyl setup.
Are some LPs better or worse than others...most certainly...some LPs I bought as a kid, I will never play again...the way they were recorded were terrible.

[sidvicious]

Paul, you are so right regarding this and you covered it so elegantly. I own turntable, cd and a great streaming device and I love all of them. Like you said a lot of this is in the hands of the sound engineers and the mastering process. I have CD that sound better than albums and albums that sound better than cd. I have music that hasn't been reissued on cd and the same for vinyl. It is about excepting the differences between the two and realizing that both have one purpose and that is the enjoyment of the listener.

[benpit]

CD, vinyl, streaming... yeah so many ways to enjoy music these days although I’ve not played a CD for a while now. It’s either Tidal MQA and/of vinyl!

[musicman]

Vinyl is a lot of trouble but worth it, as I discovered when I bought a CD of Learning to crawl to play in the car. Did not sound as good as my 30 odd year old record, so I got more serious about vinyl for the first time in years. Digital is great but vinyl has a soul

[freewheelin]

Paul, you said it so well, yes, stop this divide or war between this or that. Just enjoy music the way you like it! For me it is definitively both!

[vinylcity]

I enjoy both formats! Depends on what sound I'm in the mood for at any certain time! If I want unmatched clarity, I go to CD, if I want want warm and natural, I go to vinyl! But I am obviously more partial to LP's! I usually have an album in BOTH formats!

[stephencosta]

This sounds like one of your most honest responses I'm not saying you lied at all but this one just is so real and you are very real and trustworthy and honest keep up the good work all about the music let's not get caught up with the formats you are right

[RadioHamGuy]

Great response to that question, I have a lot of vinyl from the past and tons of CD's also, I remember purchasing one of the fist Sony CD players when I was in high school I guess it was in the early 80's or so and I was the first on the block to have one and everyone came over to see what it was all about. They had all the test and demo CD's that would play the very high freq sounds and lows for demo, like running your finger across a comb etc. I think the firs CD I purchased was by Loverboy. Still have it and still have that Sony player and use it to this day just for in my ham radio shack here. I have a turntable but have not hooked it up in years but still have a lot of my vinyl.