Does Age Matter?

I do think age is a factor on the preference of digital or analog. A few reasons why: older generation has more money to invest in analog; older generation does not benefit much from the convenience of digital; older generation does not fully know how much a quality DAC can improve the sound from digital media; Actually vinyl sounds better if you compare the same music produced in vinyl and CD.

However there are many other factors to consider. For example, whether you are a type of person who is more likely to follow the fashion or trend. Large population of young generation follows the trend and what is cool.
Fremer showed a data that shows that the purchase of vinyls in 2020 is spread evenly over age groups. That is, 20~30 age group purchased similar amount of LPs as 50~60 did. Interestingly, many of those 20-30 age group do not own audiophile system. Then, why did they purchase vinyls?
Well, most of them felt vinyl is cool (putting the LP on the table and putting the needle on top of the spinning vinyl, as well as the artistic material that comes with vinyl) and followed the trend of owning physical media of music. And Some buy vinyl as an investment.
You know, many LPs produced by young artists since 2000 fetch whole lot more money these days. My 18 year old son sent me a list of LPs he wanted to buy, and I looked at the price of new and many of them sell at over $100. VG+ or Mint- from discogs selling at over $40.
Also, some of the new albums I bought over the past 20 years sell at over twice in VG+ or Mint- condition. So, even though the older generation audiophile tends to prefer vinyl over digital for whatever reason, there is a strong movement from younger generation valuing LPs more than CDs, not necessarily because they appreciate the sound quality of Vinyl over CD.

I appreciate both CD and LP. No digital file because I don’t have a system that plays the lossless files. For music in both CD and LP, I most definitely listen to LP than CD unless LP is in less than VG or the recording quality is poor. By the way, I have about 4000 LPs (2500 classical, 500 jazz, 500 rock/pop, and 500 misc) and 1000 CDs (500 classical, 300 Jazz, 200 rock/pop/misc).

55 - prefer analog. Stream to discover music or hard to find vinyl.

I honestly don’t care about the format. Over the years I have learned to appreciate good music and how it sounds regardless of the recorded medium. I equally enjoy spinning Vinyl, CD’s and Streaming tunes. There is no clear winner in my system and to my ears simply because of the attention to detail towards each competing format.

As @chakster pointed out, Streaming is a great medium to discover and appreciate music. What’s remarkable to me is how Vinyl has managed to sustain its presence in last 50 plus years :-)

This year I bought LPs for my 37 year old nephew and the 16 year old daughter of my best friend’s son. Both are starting vinyl systems for the first time. So as far as my personal anecdotal experience goes, no. Your generalization does not apply.

43, 100% analog.
Collecting records from approx 25 years (just after university)
From 30 tried to capture digital for 10 years, do own DAC which is off for the last 3 years. 

39 and digital. Music discovery is extremely important and digital provides this, as well as accessibility that I would have never thought possible while working at Tower Records 20 years ago as a poor college student. Vinyl, at least right now, would be too costly.

No it does not, my simple answer as not all aged ones have an RTR deck or cassette. On the other hand it is more difficult and costlier for a young one to built a respectable vinyl collection. Digital is easier to operate, sounds good, and is very easy to obtain. You can teach an old dog new tricks for the ones who sold their lp collection when digital appeared and for the ones who seek a more complete approach to sound reproduction. 30 years ago i would not care for digital but today i want both.
G

I’m 44 and I prefer analog, and most of my audio fellas are also into analog. We’re all use streaming to discover music to buy it on vinyl.

What is definitely for old people is CD format, very few people buying CDs nowadays (I don’t even know such people in my country), some people still have CDs purchased in the 90’s (I know some who still own CDs). When I read “CD” I’m thinking about 90’s, some people stuck in the 90’s in my opinion.
CD is old fashioned media format, not vinyl!


If old people are into CDs, Vinyl and Cassettes then younger people are into Vinyl and Streaming. This is what I think.

P.S. Enjoyed cassettes longer than CDs before Vinyl replaced everything for me.