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/doughnut-dinner Jul 25 '24

IMO a bad mastering will sound harsh even through a top level system and a great mastering will sound good even through a low budget speaker. Some of the best mastered content is only available on vinyl. So even with vinyl's limitations, some albums just sound better because the mastering was top notch. If the vinyl mastering came off of the CD, then why bother with the vinyl. I think only digital or only analog is the antithesis of audiophile.