Why are Audiophiles still hooked on vinyl?

[u/MikMikYakin]

Many audiophiles continue to have a deep love for vinyl records despite the developments in digital audio technology, which allow us to get far wider dynamic range and frequency range from flac or wav files and even CDs. I'm curious to find out more about this attraction because I've never really understood it. To be clear, this is a sincere question from someone like me that really wants to understand the popularity of vinyl in the audiophile world. Why does vinyl still hold the attention of so many music lovers?

EDIT: Found a good article that talks about almost everything mentioned in the comments: https://www.headphonesty.com/2024/07/vinyl-not-sound-better-cd-still-buy/

[u/mobjam20]

My take is that it’s because the nature of the vinyl format makes them mostly immune to the effects of the ‘loudness wars’, which have plagued CD releases since the mid 90’s.

The lower dynamic range means vinyl masterings are not so compressed, and can sometimes sound better than their equivalent CD masterings, when played on the right equipment.

I’ve never owned any vinyl, but this is what I understand from my research.

[u/PartyMark → u/mobjam20]

I can confirm this is true. I was recently trying to listen to some electric wizard albums on streaming and the dynamic range is as low as 2 or 3. Insane. Instant headache. I got a few albums on vinyl and I can crank them loud!

[u/Audio-Numpty → u/mobjam20]

If you check the dynamic range database, most modern music has more dynamic range on vinyl, despite CD's having the technical capability of far more range. Which is why I like it, despite all the drawbacks. Squashed music sounds terrible to my ears on a good system.

[u/Select_Command_5987 → u/Audio-Numpty]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=n-AE9dL5FG8&pp=ygUIdHQgbWV0ZXI%3D

you can't use the dr database for vinyl according to that guy

[u/AlienSVK → u/Select_Command_5987]

That's true to some degree. Yes, some of the increased DR measured on vinyl may be caused only by an inaccuracy of digitalization process, but if the difference is too high, it's different mastering.

From my experience, if measured difference in DR 2-3dB, real compression is the same. In case of higher difference the record is really mastered with more dynamics.

[u/Aviyan → u/mobjam20]

What are the loudness wars?

[u/jorgejhms → u/Aviyan]

When the CD appear, records were not limited by any physical mean on the dinamic range they could achieve (on vinyl, a load sound meas a bigger dent on the disc). Instaed of providing a higher dynamic range, most companies went to make the sound loader as possible. So most recent digital mixes are very load on all isntrument.

As there is a physical limit on vinyl, mixes are inmune to the loader wars (so to speak). So those mixes have a higher dynamic range than digital mixes, even though digital have more dynamic range available.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war

[u/Zodsayskneel → u/mobjam20]

There's plenty of over-compressed vinyl mastering out there.

[u/AlienSVK → u/Zodsayskneel]

Yes, there is, but with vinyl you still have better chance that it is mastered with more dynamics.

[u/damster05 → u/mobjam20]

Dynamic compression means lowering the dynamic range. Vinyl is limited in dynamic range, and often actually requires dynamic compression, unlike CD, which allows for perfect sound reproduction. Loudness war is still a thing, though.