What is the actual percentage of people exclusively listening to vinyl vs digital?


I well remember in the ‘80s when we were amazed and thrilled by CD.
Wow, no more pops and clicks and all the physical benefits.
Seems so many abandoned vinyl.
But now, with so much convenience, available content and high SQ seems even dedicated vinylholics have again abandoned vinyl and embraced digital. However, there is clearly a new resurgence in analog.
But I look at, for example, whitecamaro’s “List of amplifiers...” thread and no one seems interested in analog!
To me, it seems strange when auditioning “$100Kish gear, that vinyl doesn’t enter the picture or conversation.
mglik

Showing 6 responses by mijostyn

I have been on a forced vinyl holiday going on 4 months now. I ordered a new turntable directly from the manufacturer, sold the old one and to have Covid hysteria slow turntable production down to a crawl. I have been listening to a hard drive and the few assorted discs, maybe three hundred I have left. There are almost 4000 albums on the hard drive so it is not like I am starved for music. But, I am starting to develop withdrawal symptoms. Looking back I do not think I have gone this long without playing a record since I got my first record player in 1958 for my 4th birthday. 
I just want to play a record. I do not think it is because of any sonic difference either, more like the intractability of old habits. 
This argument over formats is getting rather old. The digital formats are unquestionably more accurate by any and all measurable parameters, playing records a measurable disaster. What can't be measured is what they sound like. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. This is why I personally do not care what people think anything sounds like. Unless you know the person and their tastes very well there is no way to control for it. 
So, what we have is an argument over what color is best in an unknown décor. Seems sort of silly doesn't it? 


"Amazed and thrilled" by CD? I hardly think so. The initial CD machines were awful. It was obvious that the format was going to fly as it was so convenient relative to vinyl and you could play it in your car. Anything would be better than cassettes.
@chakster , The reason you have a big screen (TV?) between your speakers is to watch/listen to your favorite music concert video's like NIN'S With Teeth or RTF's Return or the Stones in 78 or Zappa's Roxy and a hundred others. When the low end comes around and the whole house swells in the dark the screen comes alive and you get that kick inside. Close to being there, very close. I can get closer yet. 
@chakster , It seems to me judging by the number of threads on room acoustics that a lot of people here on Agon use some form of acoustic management be it panels or something else.
"Thanks Youngsters"??? mrpgray is was us old farts that got the youngsters into vinyl in the first place!

I think mwinkc has it right. You have to go wherever the music is. I remember how bad I thought CD was until I heard the original release of Lauri Anderson's Mr Heartbreak. Darn, you could make a CD sound pretty good if you wanted to. We use to blow customers away with CDs like the original Telarc Firebird, ka BOOM! I still play that CD when I want to make a subwoofer impression. This is where digital rules, in the deep bass. My own rule of thumb is if it was recorded in analog it should be played back that way and same for digital. 
mambacfa, in order to compare sources like that you have to switch back and forth concentrating on one detail at a time. 

Over the years I have noticed that what people think sounds best has much less to do with accuracy than one would think. In some situations "accurate" actually sounds worse! This is very relevant when it comes to room treatment. As always beauty is in the eye of the beholder. A system that "sounds good" playing everything is most likely stamping it's own signature on everything it plays. There are plenty of terrible recordings out there both digital and analog. The vagaries of speaker performance far outweigh any differences between digital and analog playback.
The preference of one format over the other is most likely due to other factors besides sound quality. Number one would probably be convenience.  Insisting that one format always sounds better than the other. Very few issues are "always."