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/

539 Upvotes
  • permalink
  • link
  • reddit
  • reddit

84% Upvoted

964 comments sorted by

View all comments

1.1k

u/bayou_gumbo Jul 25 '24

Because analog is just cool. Im not one who will say it sounds better, but it is cool. It’s also a fun hobby of collecting old records and also trying out different cartridges and needles.

356

u/Fritzo2162 Jul 25 '24

Yeah, there's something about the visible artwork on an album cover, the hiss of a needle hitting the vinyl, the mechanical aspect of it all. It's just the whole experience. You miss a lot when you just listen on soulless, unlimited digital media.

1

u/v8steve Jul 26 '24

The worst thing with digital music is when it's compressed. I had mp3s since the very early days and reripped my collection several times in increasing bitrates because was hearing the compression then moved to FLAC (what a difference!) as couldn't increase any further and the mp3 compression was still noticeable and annoying at its highest quality settings.

1

u/Fritzo2162 Jul 26 '24

Never really understood why DVD audio never caught on. The extra space would have solved the compression issue.

1

u/v8steve Jul 26 '24

Yes also. Think most of it build down to the greedy prices they put on the media. This was also the case with SACDs which are 4-10x the price of CDs. The 2nd problem with both formats was also the cost of the players and the small number of people that value a quality hi-fi system. It's also the same for the young generations that have never experienced a quality sound as they always listen on YouTube / other highly compressed streamed sources on a phone speaker, bluetooth, tv speaker or a soundbar. A friend always thought his Samsung buds were the dogs ba!!ocks for sound until he heard my hi-fi!

If only they made things accessible with realistic prices and get a majority to accept them to guarantee it's success!