I’m 69 — had a decent system in HS and college, that included home built Dynaco pre and power amps, Revox A77 R2R and Dual 1219 TT with a Stanton 681EEE. Then a LONG dry spell, during which my collection of ~1500 LPs was stolen. Got back into it four years ago, and bought a TT despite having only 50 albums left. I was, and still am, underwhelmed by the sound. Tried streaming, and haven’t looked back.
I have heard excellent vinyl systems that are arguably better than comparable digital systems, but the vinyl systems were well over 100K, and the digital ones were 30K. If you have unlimited resources, vinyl may be worth it, IF you also have a large vinyl collection in very good shape. I am not willing to invest all that is needed for a comprehensive vinyl collection, high quality TT, phono amp and carts, when the upside is maybe a 1% improvement in SQ, and the downside is the frustration of getting the TT/cart properly set up and regularly maintained, constant disc cleaning, and having to get up at least every 15 minutes to flip or change the platter. Good digital is great sounding, easy to change with my iPad, endlessly varied in access to recordings, and affordable (thank God) for people of my means.
I would never THINK of starting from scratch trying to rebuild my record collection, without more incentive and a lot bigger bank account.
