For all you Vinyl lovers!

@mrpgray

Only your 2nd post, cool - I agree 100%.  Intense listening to high-end music reproduction is not a hobby many share.  I've had very few friends that are really into it.  For me it's a thrilling experience I usually enjoy alone.  That's fine.  When uninterested friends visit, my system volume gets low and it becomes background music.  That's life these days.

Enjoyable post Tony.  Nail on the head.

My hunch as to why I find vinyl so natural and smooth is that, fortunately, many years ago, someone invented the technology to turn sound into a physical groove on a "record" (they didn't even use vinyl until years later).  There was no loss of information.

Enter digital sampling.  It will always be a sample, no matter how far that technology advances.  There are many enjoyable digital recordings, but when I want the real thing, I pull out the vinyl.

Again, this is just my hunch.

@larsman

For me, the best thing about vinyl isn't "the artifact."  It's the natural, relaxed, realistic sound.  As I tell my non-audiophile friends, one must spend significantly more on an analog front end in order to surpass digital reproduction, but once you're there, vinyl is the best in terms of musicality.

Great analogy Tony!