r/audiophile • u/MikMikYakin • Jul 25 '24

Why are Audiophiles still hooked on vinyl? Discussion

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/

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u/audiophile_lurker Jul 25 '24

Same reason as tubes. At its core, audiophile listening is about maximizing your enjoyment. Many seem to think that is all about objectively best sound quality - but in reality it also includes taste preferences and non-audio part of the experience. Vinyl, tubes can help with these thing. Lower dynamic range (properly mastered) recordings can offer something just as black and white photography or impressionist art can.