Why do YOU love Vinyl/or hate vinyl

@richmon, amen on the lights out closer to music comment.

@noromance

“Apart from all the other reasons you mentioned, my reason is simple. Original well-recorded analogue records sound better than any reissues. Warts and all, there is a see-through clarity with the originals.” 

Agreed. Most of the music I love was recorded and mastered with only vinyl playback in mind. Subsequent CD transfers often - no usually - leave something to be desired.

Furthermore almost all remasters
(ie inappropriately added bass) are usually inferior in dynamics, at least in my experience.

Properly done remasters from impeccable sources with the dynamics left intact are an unfortunate rarity (I suspect deliberately so for marketing purposes). 

Love the fluid expressiveness and dynamic range of vinyl

Hate poor pressings though - simply inexcusable 

I'm over it, streaming is the future and today's DAC's smooth out all the wrinkles. Ease of use, infinite library and sonic clarity trump the snap, crackle and pop of vinyl. Streaming has opened up a whole new world of musical genres that vinyl doesn't touch. 

I am going to address this streaming aspect of music into my life, the availability is just to overwhelming and I really can't ignore it any more. My new music influx has been a couple of XM radio channels, Little Stevies Underground Garage & Tom Pettys Buried Treasure, as well as keeping up with my favorite artist and buying their stuff on vinyl as it is released. I am an old dog with old ways so I will incorporate my nephew who shares my love of music, plays in a few bands for fun on piano and has his master's in computer science to set me up with something to get me going on my headphone system upstairs as well as to go back and research the past discussions here.

Vinyl makes me all sweaty...

I love it!

DeKay

About cheapest and easiest way you can get into streaming is likely a Google Chromecast Audio gizmo.
About $40 to $45 on fleabay.
Should connect to your home Wi-Fi and then stream both Tidal and Qobuz, Spotify too I think.
It can output RCA analog or toslink digital.
Good luck with the future......

@uberwaltz, thanks for that and other things as well.

as a lifelong motorcyclist I much prefer leather as opposed to vinyl.

It's warmer and has more abrasion resistance.
As for records, they wear out a little bit every time you play them. The needle wears out a little bit every time you play it, they get noisier as they get older, they're prone to vibrations.

Love the album covers though

I think @bdp24 is correct and we really should not refer to it as vinyl.
Conjures up images of some sado masochistic dungeon scene.

Or is that just me.......

😉😉

When I put on Cat Stevens' Tea for the Tillerman from Acoustic Records Pressings - their first release - I heard sounds and instruments that I never heard before in any of the version I own.  That is why I love vinyl.

I am also enamored with Direct 2 Disc recordings.  They just jump out at me like I am in the club itself.  That is why I love vinyl.

Every pull out an gatefold LP that you haven't listened to since High School and find a little herb in there?  That is why I love vinyl.

Mijostyn-here is your statement: All my optical discs have been transferred to the hard drive. I took them all to Bull Moose Music and traded them in for....Records! $1500.00 worth. 
you copied all of your discs to a hard drive then sold them. This is illegal as hell. This has nothing to do with streaming, this have everything to do with copying, keeping a copy, then selling the discs.
also, why would you tape a digital recording when you can play it at anytime? If you were listening to a one time recording, then yes, recording to r2r makes sense.
i have owned a few 15 ips r2r decks, the Otari 5050 and the pioneer 901. The pioneer only sounded good at 15ips whereas the Otari sounded great at both 7.5 and 15ips. So you need to spend some cash to get a good r2r that does 15ips and then you’re going to pay a premium for tape. After a while, I just didn’t see a need for a r2r.

also, why would you tape a digital recording when you can play it at anytime?

Have you listened to a good r2r recording of digital stream?
If you had I dare say you would not be asking that question.

YMMV

I just signed up for Tidal, looking forward to trying recording to reel to reel. Just need to find a good value streaming device that can maximize Tidal’s “HiFi” potential. Any suggestions?

How cheap and basic do you want to go?
Google Chromecast Audio, $45 on eBay
Will stream up to 24/96 from Tidal or Qobuz and output over analog rca or mini toslink.
And then from there the sky is the limit or how deep is your pocket?
Plenty of good threads on that subject but feel free to start a new one and get the current crop of the streamers.

I can't put my finger on it but it something about cranking up the old turntable and letting it rip. Every genre brings something unique to the party. As tooblue stated rolling a joint on the album cover is something that I will remember although I puffed but I didn't inhale (alledgedly)

Love LPs as they sound much  better than Digital or streaming.

Until the trendy twenty somethings got into it, vinyl tends to have a personal connection in that you build uo a collection of records over the years. In my case it was in the 90's when I was a lousy party DJ playing funk and soul. It wasn't a status symbol so much as it is now. You get a mental connection with playing a record. Being physical it's fun to fiddle with - you can't do that so readily with CD. Records are also mixed to be warmer than digital and don't have as high a bandwidth. Apparently it is the very distortion - which can be likened to a pen thickening on a seismograph that makes vinyl sound so good. I must confess, if I was to start again - digital all the way. Not coz it sounds better, but because CD's are mega cheap second-hand at the minute, and music lovers want music - they don't care about format

Some computer malfunction in "the cloud" or a blip in the net can (and sometimes does) render streaming simply outta here...I have yet to get a buzzkill from my turntable or CD player, and the only way to hear the music on all that vinyl is to put the record on, so to speak.

Of course CD's sound analogue - all of them - that's why you call it a digital to analogue convertor - it's more a case of getting cd's to sound like vinyl - just jokingly pedantic. I claim absolutely no science knowledge on this at all - I say this at the outset, but I recall reading a review about a top end Meridian and they have apparently got rid of 'digital hash' - I would love to hear it. I concur with the fact that vinyl has that sit down and listen quality, but this has as much to do with the format as the sound itself. I personally like the consistency, cleanliness and fault free sound of CD and enjoy it for what it is - likewise I enjoy the eccentricity fussiness and seduction of vinyl. Healthy salad vs Sunday dinner. I have, until recently, had a rubbish CD player. I got myself a Cayin CD-55 at the end of last year with a valve output stage and I think it is absolutely superb - very musical - superb at imaging and easy to sit down and listen to. I agree with the sentiment that price of entry to good sound from CD is waaaay cheaper than Vinyl. - likewise it is more consistent too. 

Digital frequently sounds “super clean” - hyper-analytical you could say - but that’s because it’s missing a lot of the harmonica and other information, like the bass harmonics and sweetness and air. The missing information also gives a false sense of low distortion. Oh, well, whaddya want fir nothin’? Listen to Heifetz on CD. Then listen to the same recording on vinyl or even cassette. No contest. Case closed.

uberwaltz-like I mentioned, I've had 2 very good r2r decks in the last few years and I have recorded digital music to them. The Otari has very good specs and sounded very good but wasn't any better than straight out of a dac. I bought the r2r to record my vinyl so in case I got rid of my tt or my vinyl albums would become noisy, I would have analog recordings of my albums. It was much cheaper to rebuy the bad album than to buy the tape to record at 15ips

I have used both and to my ears since I added a quality usb cable 
and the Excellent Lampizator vacuum tube dac , turntables have No advantage ,i have a purpose build Solid state drive server for my cd,dsd collection , Roon with all the bonus info and album art
i no longer have to deal with cleaning every record ,deal with pops
and static, the Lampizator is the 1st dac I have owned that makes CDs sound like A Real event . The designer has a great ear 
and even their New entry level Amber-3 dac at around $3k beats any dac at $6k out there I have heard ,and you can change the flavor a bit with tube rolling . their Atlantic dac has multiple 
tubes choices you can use to suit your taste exactly the way you like it for around $5 k which is around what a respectable turntable 
setup goes for. Finally digital that-gets you involved. The better the recording the more  you are there event. Even Qabuz,or Tidal  sound great these non oversampling dacs with the magic of the Vacuum tubes is my cup of tea. I can pick my favorite say 10 CDs and play them in order or random. I am thrilled . If you want to spin  your turntable go for it. You should though at least experience a great dac like the Lampizator I think you would be shocked at just how defined your music can be ,and the convenience, to just rip-a cd, download  a Hirez cd from HD trax , or anywhere else on line, Flac or Wav files.DSD files are limited in number  but take things to a higher level still. At least experience it .they at Lampizator even give you a 2 week money back guarantee.
Either way just my view point after 40 years in Audio .

Didn't read what came earlier...as yet.
Just a quick note.
I like the naturalness, the freely dynamic sound. Unrestrained.
I don't like the clicks and pops, the fragility, the set up, the damage to vinyl, the sixteen ways it can go wrong.
My TT15S1 has been off line for one year because the stylus broke. I bought a replacement cartridge that sounded nicer, more open. But I simply haven't used the TT or connected it back up since then. I somewhat dread its use, as a difficult inconvenient medium.
I envy others who have mastered it.

@audioman58 nice story about Lampi...what model do you use? Recently I read the entire Lampi postings on WBF. Anyway just a quick inquiry and you can PM me if you want so we don't sidetrack this post.

It's all about the sound; analogue sounds better (i.e. more realistic) than digitized music. Sound is inherently analogue; it's physical. Only in Star Trek does a physical thing get digitized (converted) in one place and then reappear (converted again) without changing its essence. 

The appeal of digital is its low cost and convenience. Its sound quality has improved, but in a side-by-side comparison, digital always loses to a good-quality vinyl setup. 

I dislike:

• snap, crackle, pop, hiss
• the inconvenience of the manual process
• space hogs
• the expense
• the degradation

I like:

• nothing about them
  

Having started my "audiophile" hobby when there was nothing serious but vinyl, I just don't get the vinyl nostalgia. I dumped mine as soon as possible. Maybe it's my nature as a software engineer to always look forward, but I can think of nothing of a mechanical or electrical nature, that was better performance-wise in the "old days". I collect vintage things as art, but I don't "use" them. I use new technology because it makes life easier and it's almost always better from a performance perspective. My whole collection fits on a flash drive. I can stream by voice command. To me, vinyl is like watching TV without a remote control. Heck, I even talk to my TV now. No remote needed.

rbstehno

Sorry my memory aint what it used to be, sure you mentioned that before but now you are bringing another variable into the mix, that of cost.

Sure recording onto reel on good quality tape at 7.5ips minimum is not cheap but I had not even thought about or factored in cost.
Heck if I start thinking about cost I must as well just sling a rope up over the rafters and be done with it all..... lol.

I don't like vinyl at all since it distracts me from my purpose of all this effort, which is to listen to music, not tinkering with INFERIOR system to reduce pops and noise.

Budda said to cross the damn river, not to stay in the ship.

What the heck is the point of all these audiophile gear?
The purpose is to REPRODUCE ORIGINAL RECORDING as if you are there in the studio next to musicians EVERY SINGLE TIME.

The very INFERIOR DESIGN of the vinyl system is that it leaves listener to experience different sound/noise with each PLAY, yet my ARTIST clearly tried very hard to ELIMINATE any pops and noise in the ORIGINAL RECORDING unless intended.

Based on 2nd law of Thermodynamics, if you play the same vinyl track 10 times in a row, you will experience different sound every time and every next play you will DEVIATE more from the ORIGINAL RECORDING due to DISORDER (like tiny particles in the air) you add every single time. 

IF YOU LOVE your vinyl because if you like FONDLING and TWEAKING that's your thing. My thing is to simply LISTEN to music close to original recording.

Unless you go through a lot of hoops, digital generally still sounds thin, unnatural, bloated, bass shy, inarticulate, congealed, zippy, two dimensional, generic, metallic, electronic, like paper mache, bland, hard, piercing, compressed, airless and sour. Yet people still tell me, “My system sounds fabulous!” As Bob Dylan says at the end of his songs, “Good luck to you!”

Mach12
Based on 2nd law of Thermodynamics, if you play the same vinyl track 10 times in a row, you will experience different sound every time and every next play you will DEVIATE more from the ORIGINAL RECORDING due to DISORDER (like tiny particles in the air) you add every single time.

>>>>>>You would have more problems by far by bringing books, CDs, musical instruments, cell phones, DVDs into the room than by playing the same track ten times in row as that would increase the entropy in the room much more. That’s why Feng Shui recommends reducing entropy in the house - by removing old newspapers, books, magazines, etc. This also improves the sound.

“The second law of thermodynamics states that the total entropy of an isolated system can never decrease over time. The total entropy of a system and its surroundings can remain constant in ideal cases where the system is in thermodynamic equilibrium, or is undergoing a (fictive) reversible process. In all processes that occur, including spontaneous processes,[1]the total entropy of the system and its surroundings increases and the process is irreversible in the thermodynamic sense. The increase in entropy accounts for the irreversibility of natural processes, and the asymmetry between future and past.[2]”

@mach12, What does Budda have to do with setting up my system?

@mach12.
I would say the point of it all is just to enjoy the music however it is played from whatever source.
And to some that is the point of all the audiophile gear.
Or if not let's all just listen to an old GEC radio and be done with it.

If you like the way vinyl changes the sound, great, but all the data shows that high resolution digital is more accurate in all respects. Digital's bad reputation was well deserved in its infancy, but those days are long gone. I know that art isn't necessarily about accurate, but I can tell you that what you hear coming off a record is not what the artist, producer and engineer heard in the studio as they were creating the final mix or playing back a two-track master of a live performance. I don't hate vinyl, I just prefer not to be forced into its limitations of frequency response, dynamic range, signal to noise and channel separation.

tooblue

Go learn yourself and be enlightened.

"Neo, you think that's air you're breathing now?"

You may think you know the voice of say Michael Jackson, John Denver or Elvis since you've heard it million times.  Yet, do you think who would know his voice better?  You or his manager who interacted with him on daily basis and who was there at the recording studio.  Now then how do you know what his voice truly like?  You probably first heard his voice through small boombox, Walkman or $50k stereo?  How about when Michael went into his studio to record his very first "Thriller" song, how cheap or expensive or accurate was the microphone?  How about the interconnect cable? Was it a western electric wire or Neumann wire? How about the sound engineer or system, did the sound engineer add or change anything while mixing to slightly change voice? How about when transferring his songs to vinyls, tapes, or cds?  Any slight change might have occurred during transfer process that may have slightly altered voice?  

While many so called audiophiles claim that their ears are better since they spent so much money
and time, etc etc..  You see what they heard is nothing more a copy of truth and what they say is nothing more that their recollection or impression.  You are naive to believe that their recollection of things or something they perceived are to be the truth, yet none of them truly would know how Michael, John or Elvis sound like?  Perhaps they have been to live concerts?  Was the voice coming out of JBL speaker sound more like them or Klipsch speaker?  Was Senheiser mic or Neumann mic that sound more like them.

Buddha realized long ago that what you see and hear are really recollections or interpretations of truth.  I like Steve Guttenberg the Audiophilliac, who once sold hifi audio and have used many gear, I found his review to be helpful. But really who do you think would know the sound of piano better Steve or Piano tuner or Pianist or Piano maker?   

When you are enlightened, when you hear someone claiming digital is thin..this and that..it is only his interpretation and he is no better than any other Joe in recollecting sound or song.  So enlightened ones widely seek audio advice knowing they are not the absolute truth but partial impressions and ultimately they have to DECIDE which is perceived to be close to the truth. 

stevemillerhome

I don’t hate vinyl, I just prefer not to be forced into its limitations of frequency response, dynamic range, signal to noise and channel separation.

Oddly, because of the Loudness Wars, the best version of a new recording - in terms of just those qualities - is often the LP version. The digital versions are the ones most often compressed in dynamic range. As for frequency response, LP trounces CD there, too.

The superior potential of CD is often not utilized.

I love it for the process - find the album, get it out of the sleeve - put it on the turntable, clean it, put down the arm, sit in my chair, read the liner notes. One thing about CD's is no liner notes, which is a pain. And I LOVE the sound. I kept all my albums from the 70's and have added a lot of reissues - Bill Evans, Oscar Peterson, Stones, Beatles, SRV..... nothing better than sitting and listening to music. No one does that any more. Music is always background, but no one sits and listens.

@mach12, I did learn myself and am enlightened. Can I get an amen?

@stevemillerhome, all I needed to do was read your first sentence. You know in all my years when I listen to music have I ever sat down and read the data to decide what I like. Enjoy the music and or your data.

Dear @mach12 : Please read: 
https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/worth-pursuing-analog-sound-from-digital/post?postid=1803361#1803361


Regards and enjoy the MUSIC NOT DISTORTIONS,
R.

Vinyl may be a hair better on most recordings, BUT - today’s digital is great, and today’s analog is great, especially compared to what was available just a few years ago.
I listen to LPs, CDs, and streaming. I must admit that of the 3, CDs get the least play time, though.
Enjoy it all.

What planet are we on, quick! It’s difficult to agree that CDs sound great today since almost all of the new music as well as the re-issues of older music is aggressively compressed to the point the sound is lifeless. If that’s your idea of great sound maybe time to switch hobbies, macrame anyone?

I’ve been in love with vinyl since I was a small child and started off playing my parents records on my dad’s Dual turntable. I really got into collecting vinyl before ever taking it to any level that I’d consider in the audiophile realm until maybe 20 or so yrs ago. I love the big art, the liner notes, the smell of a new LP, the ritual of putting it on the platter, getting it spinning, dropping the needle, and even getting up to change to side 2. I love setting up a cartridge to perfection with the perfect loading. It’s truly magical. 

This has turned into an interesting thread. Now I'm trying to figure out how enlightenment & fondling fit into my love for music...

Some part of this is that in the age of analog records, records were usually made to sound as good as possible, and in the age of digital, records are made to follow some other priority.  Turning out the lights and putting on a good LP is still the high point of my week, since I no longer have access to a good live Classical orchestra.
Lots of records sound horrible.  All major-label classical records sound horrible. 

Now I'm trying to figure out how enlightenment & fondling fit into my love for music...

Do I REALLY have to explain that one to ya Boxer!

I enjoy the sound of analog recordings. I have some early pressings of some classics like "Kind of Blue" by Miles and and an original Mono pressing of "Take 5" by Brubeck. Nothing digital captures the essence of those recordings. But, the other thing I love about LP's like fiddling with turntable settings, record cleaning rituals and the general machine/human interface of playing vinyl is also the same stuff I hate about LP's. Every pop and click, low level background noise and the rare skip makes my OCD brain cringe. Then I'm generally lazy and have music streaming in the background, most of the time anyways.

Ok, i guess it's time for my story. Probably very similer to many audiophilies. When i was a young man my Father gave me a Rec-O-Kut turntable. The rest of my system was medeocure at best. I then purchased a classic JVC rack system.  At a young age i was never able to afford a really good stereo system. Then CD's came out. At the time it seamed to me they were the best thing since sliced bread. I gave away my records to Good Will and gave my JVC turntable to my Dad. My system continued to improve over the years of my adult life, but i continued to play CD's. I went through many CD players looking for better sound. But i never was satisfied. It was only after i became disabled from a back injury that i decided to take a step back and look into records again. I purchase a low end Music Hall MMF3.1 with an Ortofon 2M red cartridge. The first time i drop the stylus i'm in heaven. I'v since upgraded to a Music Hall mmf 7.1 with a Sumiko Blue Point #2 cartridge. I'm running a highly modified China clone of an Ear 834p tube phono stage. I'm in the process of building and upgrading a Trancendent Sound phono stage. Next project will be a high end DIY turntable with a Maglev bearing, a Jadmin motor and a Jelco 750d tonearm. Even though my love for vinyl remains i still ocasionally spin my CD's. I have Jolida cd player modified by Underwood HiFi with nos Mullard output tubes. It helps make my CD's sound more like my vinyl

Vinyl is a tactile experience along with the audio equipment. I also enjoy the hunt for vintage LP's.