Does Age Matter?


Having read and contributed to several threads on the digital vs analog controversy I developed a nagging itch that suggested it is older people that prefer analog and younger people digital. If this is the case than there is most definitely a nostalgic element to that opinion. Perhaps we can answer that question. I will go first. Please do not ruminate on the differences. Age and preference, digital, analog or both! We'll tally the results at the end. 

I am 67 and like Both analog and digital.
128x128mijostyn
I'm 71 and have 3 systems, den, living room, bedroom.  All have both digital and analog components.  In the 3 systems, there are 7 working turntables.  I love vinyl.  But what I really love is music.  So most of my listening is digital (streaming mostly), whether on one of those systems or on my computer with headphones (Topping, Bottlehead electronics, many different 'phones).  When I have the time to devote to it, I use one of my turntables.   But I also admit to cheating in my digital listening - many of the playlists that I stream are rips that I have made of my records.  I should also mention that, until this pandemic hit, I went to about 20, mostly jazz and classical, concerts a year.  I count that as analog despite the fact that most of the musicians use their fingers.  

Someone else will have to parse the percentages.
Younger people may have better hearing, but not necessarily better listening.  Knowing how to listen to music--and the genre you're listening to--really impacts what your hear.
55 years old - I think digital sounds better, but I do like using vinyl because it's easy and fun, and vinyl sounds plenty good enough on a good turntable.

I and started getting my own stereo equipment at about age 11 - so about 1976 (paper route money). So my first big love was CASSETTES. And I still love that they allowed us to make our own mixes, most of which I did off the radio, because I had no other source!

In 1981 or so I got a decent turntable and I was immediately impressed with how much better it sounded than my rather inadequate cassette deck. I literally bought that turntable so I could borrow records just to make mixes with. I was planning to get a second cassette deck to make tape to tape dubs. There were no dual well tape decks at the time (that I knew of).

In 1988 or so I got a CD player. It didn't sound as good as my good (subsequent) turntable, but the next CD player certainly did. MP3s were bad, but even they are better now and FLAC is great.

I think good digital like CD or FLAC sounds best. I still prefer using vinyl records or CDs because disks are easy to deal with and fun, and I can own them, unlike so many of the songs in my streaming service playlists.

But I think digital above 128Kbps MP3 sounds best.
I have noticed a bunch of comments mentioning vinyl as "a scratchy sound." For most records that are well cared for and played with a good stylus well set up this is just not true. Vinyl can be very quiet. Yes, there is the occasional bad pressing and bad scratch, maybe even a skip but these are few and far between. Why do I keep listening to vinyl in spite of having a great collection of digital files. Well, I have a lot of records certainly in the thousands. I use to spend hours flipping through vinyl at the store and still love to. Flipping through CDs is just not the same. I use to buy records just because I loved the cover. I am always amazed at how good dragging a rock through a trench can sound. Digital sounds great also. When I'm busy there is no competition even though I have an end of record lift. I can totally understand some of use migrating to digital.
That's more records for the rest of us:-)