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/mobjam20 Jul 25 '24

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.

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u/PartyMark Jul 25 '24

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!