All of my first musical purchases were vinyl.

Delicate needles... scratching noises... scratched records... that crackle and hum.

I thought cassettes were great. CDs were even better. It took a few years but digital is the best. Why on God's green earth are people filling up shelves with vinyl again in 2019?

I don't get it.

As I understand it, vinyl is capable of taking a recording that is purely analog. I think some people claim to be able to hear a difference, but as you point out, that takes high end equipment in top condition and a pristine album. If someone sat me down and played a digital recording and an analog back to back on such a setup, I don't know if I could tell or not, but I can tell you that I wouldn't care.

I remember hearing CD's for the first time thinking it was a much clearer sound. I remember any album that I liked to listed to as a kid had hissing and sounded muffled compared to the same song played on a cassette tape through the same setup.

Connoisseurs have it rough, they seem to spend all their energy finding rare enjoyment instead of enjoying accessible things.

Why is it manlier to drink alcohol that doesn't taste as good as White Claw?

It's crazy to think that Best Buy doesn't sell CDs, but does sell vinyl.
I remember going to that store and spending forever flipping through the CDs.

I buy vinyl, get it autographed by the band, then I frame it and hang it on the wall.

It's one thing to say vinyl sucks compared to now having everything available 24x7 streaming, but you kind of look like a chooch for claiming cassettes and CDs were awesome and records sucked. Really surprised we didnt get a hot take about the missed opportunity that were 8 tracks. "You just push a button and the next song plays"

Once you hear vinyl on a proper kit, you will get why audiophiles like vinyl. Not just vinyl, either, but half speed masters, ultra one step pressings, and/or OG pressings from the golden age of recording (70s and 80s).

That is not why hipsters are buying it, though. They buy vinyl and listen to it on Crosley turntables for the novelty. Many of them buy vinyl that is digitally sourced (meaning, it was recorded 100% digitally and then pressed to vinyl. As a result, they are effectively listening to a CD without the benefits of being a CD).

For them, this applies:

Quote:

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Many of them buy vinyl that is digitally sourced (meaning, it was recorded 100% digitally and then pressed to CD. As a result, they are effectively listening to a CD without the benefits of being a CD).

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This is the funny part.

expresswrittenconsent said:

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It's one thing to say vinyl sucks compared to now having everything available 24x7 streaming, but you kind of look like a chooch for claiming cassettes and CDs were awesome and records sucked. Really surprised we didnt get a hot take about the missed opportunity that were 8 tracks. "You just push a button and the next song plays"

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Why does he look like a "chooch" for thinking that? I grew up in the same era as OP. I had vinyl albums as a kid and experienced the transition into tapes and CD's.....tapes were great for portability, CD's were great for the same reason, plus the fact that you could press a button to get to the next song (often times from across the room), and to top it off the sound quality was better.

I hear people say that the music just sounds more "real" or something when played on vinyl.....I don't know what that means. Yeah, I get the nostalgia factor but that's about it for me.

I haven't bought vinyl since the 80's but I do miss the crackles and such. Brings back good memories

I knew a guy who spend $30K on a turn table alone. His entire setup easily cost over $100K. His amplifier didn't have a volume knob. Instead, you had to stick a flat head screw driver into a hole to turn it up and down. And there was a separate one for the left and right speaker. It took several minutes for it to "warm up".

He thought I was an idiot for using CDs. He claimed he could tell the difference. I thought about having a "sound off" where he would listen to both them blindfolded, but I figured he would just pick the one that has the grainy popping sounds.

With streaming there isn't a real point in owning a CD anymore and people still want to own the music and support the artist so vinyl does that. I like to support bands and buy merch when they are on tour and it's mostly T-Shirts which I don't really want so a record can be a good compromise and something to remember the concert by (we don't even have ticket stubs anymore). I also enjoy going to record stores and thumbing through the records and CDs. Sometimes you'll find stuff like a rare single, soundtrack, or compilation album that just isn't on streaming.

I also like the experience of listening to an album I love start to finish without distractions or the temptation of skipping songs. Is this something I need vinyl for? Absolutely not, 9 times out of 10 if I want to listen to an album I'm just going to listen to it on spotify. The audio quality on vinyl is worse, full stop, if you care about quality over all else you'd pay for Tidal and get a setup that can handle HD streaming. Anyone who says vinyl is better is just trying to feel superior or justify spending too much money on their audio set up.

aTmAg said:

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I knew a guy who spend $30K on a turn table alone. His entire setup easily cost over $100K. His amplifier didn't have a volume knob. Instead, you had to stick a flat head screw driver into a hole to turn it up and down. And there was a separate one for the left and right speaker. It took several minutes for it to "warm up".

He thought I was an idiot for using CDs. He claimed he could tell the difference. I thought about having a "sound off" where he would listen to both them blindfolded, but I figured he would just pick the one that has the grainy popping sounds.

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I don't have any problem with anyone saying that they prefer how their setup with vinyl sounds or that there is some kind of experience involved with listening on vinyl (like Jasomania listening to albums straight through).

When they say it is more accurate because it is analog, it is provably false. High resolution digital files with a quality DAC is going to produce a pure signal that you can feed to amps and speakers and it can do it the same way forever, never wearing out. It's like a mechanical watch fan saying that a Rolex keeps better time than a quartz watch. It just isn't true.

The entire turntable setup and the pre-amp give you more chances to customize the sound of a listening setup (which is a great way to spend time and money), but that has nothing to do with accuracy,... It's specifically the opposite, actually.

Much of the difference in how music sounds these days is due to a completely digital editing process. It can lead to over-produced, dead sounding recordings. Auto-tuning, fixing tempo, mixing together a ton of takes to get one perfect track can suck the life out of a recording. That's why I prefer listening to live albums, or something like Foo Fighters wasting light that was recorded on analog. Real people playing music aren't going to be perfectly in tune and perfectly in time all the time.

Even all that being given, there's nothing innate about the digital editing process that makes it overproduced. I'm sure producers can and do make albums with purely digital workflows that aren't overly corrected.

As with most things, there's nothing wrong with having a preference and/or a hobby. Audiophiles that act like they experience music more purely and look down on normal people listening to their favorite band on airpods or $20 cheapy headphones are just a-holes.

To answer the actual question... hipsters love vinyl because it is fake counterculture. It gives them all a chance to act like they're different and better than normal people... just like all the other hipsters.

Jasomania said:

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The audio quality on vinyl is worse, full stop, if you care about quality over all else you'd pay for Tidal and get a setup that can handle HD streaming. Anyone who says vinyl is better is just trying to feel superior or justify spending too much money on their audio set up.

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And here we go...

1. I agree owning CDs doesn't make much sense in the era of streaming. Still, I like owning CDs. I use / prefer them in my car (the signal never drops). I would, however, like to get a proper high-end streamer for when I have some drinks and don't want to take any chances with my table/vinyl, but still want to listen to music.

2. The argument that "anyone who says vinyl is better is just trying to feel superior" is flawed. Ya ya ya, I read the article from Bob Ludwig. If you are talking about accurate reproduction of a recording, including all dynamics and free of noise, then, yes, I agree that super high sampled digital audio is superior. BUT...vinyl produces organic tones in an analog format. The result is a different sound and aural experience as a whole. There is more to experiencing music than accurate reproduction of the recording. That said, if you prefer digital then have at it. But, go to a proper hi-fi shop and Pepsi challenge a legit analog pressing of a track to a 1411 kbps version of the same on the same rig if you haven't already. You might be surprised.

TMoney2007 said:

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To answer the actual question... hipsters love vinyl because it is fake counterculture. It gives them all a chance to act like they're different and better than normal people... just like all the other hipsters.

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Well put.

I buy vinyl for many reasons. A lot of it is nostalgia, some of it is collectibility, wanting to support the artists since they don't make jack **** from streaming, and also because I like to have something tangible in my hands. I bought CD's long after streaming/downloading became the norm for the same reason. But I will vehemently disagree that some records don't sound better on vinyl. I don't have the setup to really notice a difference but a good friend of mine does. I brought a copy of Blizzard of Ozz to his house once and we played it back to back with his FLAC file of the same album and the vinyl blew it out of the water. Now I will readily admit that isn't something that happens a lot but it's not the unicorn some people like to believe.

Callate Donnie said:

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Jasomania said:

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The audio quality on vinyl is worse, full stop, if you care about quality over all else you'd pay for Tidal and get a setup that can handle HD streaming. Anyone who says vinyl is better is just trying to feel superior or justify spending too much money on their audio set up.

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And here we go...

1. I agree owning CDs doesn't make much sense in the era of streaming. Still, I like owning CDs. I use / prefer them in my car (the signal never drops). I would, however, like to get a proper high-end streamer for when I have some drinks and don't want to take any chances with my table/vinyl, but still want to listen to music.

2. The argument that "anyone who says vinyl is better is just trying to feel superior" is flawed. Ya ya ya, I read the article from Bob Ludwig. If you are talking about accurate reproduction of a recording, including all dynamics and free of noise, then, yes, I agree that super high sampled digital audio is superior. BUT...vinyl produces organic tones in an analog format. The result is a different sound and aural experience as a whole. There is more to experiencing music than accurate reproduction of the recording. That said, if you prefer digital then have at it. But, go to a proper hi-fi shop and Pepsi challenge a legit analog pressing of a track to a 1411 kbps version of the same on the same rig if you haven't already. You might be surprised.

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There is absolutely nothing in an analog setup that can't be reproduced from a digital recording. Mathematically, there is nothing audible in any setup that can't be digitally recorded and reproduced. It's a scientific fact.

You are talking about a different source running through a particular cartridge on a particular tone arm on a particular turntable going into a particular preamp. Also, there is noise present in the system. All of this is about coloring the sound, and the specific alterations that it makes to the signal captured digitally and replayed.

There is absolutely nothing innately superior about a completely analog setup. Its just preference. The whole "organic sound" and "its just different" is completely BS and provably false. If you prefer your vinyl setup, enjoy it, but drop all the crap about "organic tones" and "aural experience". Just say you prefer how your setup sounds and be done with it, because anything else is wrong.

Since when can you listen to an album straight through on vinyl?

I spent over two hours at Bill's Records in Dallas a few weeks ago. There is something fun and exciting about thumbing through non-alphabetized random boxes or crates and finding old random gems. Plus they make for really good looking wall collages.

Junkhead said:

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I buy vinyl for many reasons. A lot of it is nostalgia, some of it is collectibility, wanting to support the artists since they don't make jack **** from streaming, and also because I like to have something tangible in my hands. I bought CD's long after streaming/downloading became the norm for the same reason. But I will vehemently disagree that some records don't sound better on vinyl. I don't have the setup to really notice a difference but a good friend of mine does. I brought a copy of Blizzard of Ozz to his house once and we played it back to back with his FLAC file of the same album and the vinyl blew it out of the water. Now I will readily admit that isn't something that happens a lot but it's not the unicorn some people like to believe.

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You preferred how that album sounded on that setup, it wasn't innately better... Vinyl adds coloring into the sound that takes it farther away from what the artist and intended for it to be.

You can prefer whatever sound you like, but to say an album on vinyl is objectively better than the same album on any other medium of sufficient quality is ridiculous.

TMoney2007 said:

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Junkhead said:

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I buy vinyl for many reasons. A lot of it is nostalgia, some of it is collectibility, wanting to support the artists since they don't make jack **** from streaming, and also because I like to have something tangible in my hands. I bought CD's long after streaming/downloading became the norm for the same reason. But I will vehemently disagree that some records don't sound better on vinyl. I don't have the setup to really notice a difference but a good friend of mine does. I brought a copy of Blizzard of Ozz to his house once and we played it back to back with his FLAC file of the same album and the vinyl blew it out of the water. Now I will readily admit that isn't something that happens a lot but it's not the unicorn some people like to believe.

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You preferred how that album sounded on that setup, it wasn't innately better... Vinyl adds coloring into the sound that takes it farther away from what the artist and intended for it to be.

You can prefer whatever sound you like, but to say an album on vinyl is objectively better than the same album on any other medium of sufficient quality is ridiculous.

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Couldn't disagree more and countless music industry professionals would agree with me.

Junkhead said:

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TMoney2007 said:

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Junkhead said:

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I buy vinyl for many reasons. A lot of it is nostalgia, some of it is collectibility, wanting to support the artists since they don't make jack **** from streaming, and also because I like to have something tangible in my hands. I bought CD's long after streaming/downloading became the norm for the same reason. But I will vehemently disagree that some records don't sound better on vinyl. I don't have the setup to really notice a difference but a good friend of mine does. I brought a copy of Blizzard of Ozz to his house once and we played it back to back with his FLAC file of the same album and the vinyl blew it out of the water. Now I will readily admit that isn't something that happens a lot but it's not the unicorn some people like to believe.

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You preferred how that album sounded on that setup, it wasn't innately better... Vinyl adds coloring into the sound that takes it farther away from what the artist and intended for it to be.

You can prefer whatever sound you like, but to say an album on vinyl is objectively better than the same album on any other medium of sufficient quality is ridiculous.

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Couldn't disagree more and countless music industry professionals would agree with me.

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Unfortunately, you're all wrong... because its an opinion. You could bake all the extra color that your setup produces into a digital recording and it would sound exactly the same. The reason you PREFER one over the other is that all the components of the turntable and the noise innate to the system changes the sound produced from the recording. There's nothing special about these changes that couldn't be captured in a digital recording.

This is a fact, not an opinion.

Alternately, you could run signal from a DAC through the right set of amplifiers and get to the same point.

It's math. There's nothing audible that can't be recorded digitally and perfectly reproduced. Also, you should look up the definition of the word "objective" because your opinion about how something sounds is not objective. It is subjective. The sound from an LP isn't objectively better than the sound from a digital recording. You prefer it. Stop stating your opinion as fact because by definition it can't be a fact... because its your opinion. It's just your preference, and that's fine. But to say that analog playback is objectively better than digital is provably false.

TMoney2007 said:

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Its just preference. The whole "organic sound" and "its just different" is completely BS and provably false.

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Did you really just use the "your preference is BS" argument?

TMoney2007 said:

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Junkhead said:

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TMoney2007 said:

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Junkhead said:

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I buy vinyl for many reasons. A lot of it is nostalgia, some of it is collectibility, wanting to support the artists since they don't make jack **** from streaming, and also because I like to have something tangible in my hands. I bought CD's long after streaming/downloading became the norm for the same reason. But I will vehemently disagree that some records don't sound better on vinyl. I don't have the setup to really notice a difference but a good friend of mine does. I brought a copy of Blizzard of Ozz to his house once and we played it back to back with his FLAC file of the same album and the vinyl blew it out of the water. Now I will readily admit that isn't something that happens a lot but it's not the unicorn some people like to believe.

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You preferred how that album sounded on that setup, it wasn't innately better... Vinyl adds coloring into the sound that takes it farther away from what the artist and intended for it to be.

You can prefer whatever sound you like, but to say an album on vinyl is objectively better than the same album on any other medium of sufficient quality is ridiculous.

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Couldn't disagree more and countless music industry professionals would agree with me.

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Unfortunately, you're all wrong... because its an opinion. You could bake all the extra color that your setup produces into a digital recording and it would sound exactly the same. The reason you PREFER one over the other is that all the components of the turntable and the noise innate to the system changes the sound produced from the recording. There's nothing special about these changes that couldn't be captured in a digital recording.

This is a fact, not an opinion.

Alternately, you could run signal from a DAC through the right set of amplifiers and get to the same point.

It's math. There's nothing audible that can't be recorded digitally and perfectly reproduced. Also, you should look up the definition of the word "objective" because your opinion about how something sounds is not objective. It is subjective. The sound from an LP isn't objectively better than the sound from a digital recording. You prefer it. Stop stating your opinion as fact because by definition it can't be a fact... because its your opinion. It's just your preference, and that's fine. But to say that analog playback is objectively better than digital is provably false.

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Maybe it just all sounds the same to you. No shame in that.

TMoney2007 said:

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Junkhead said:

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I buy vinyl for many reasons. A lot of it is nostalgia, some of it is collectibility, wanting to support the artists since they don't make jack **** from streaming, and also because I like to have something tangible in my hands. I bought CD's long after streaming/downloading became the norm for the same reason. But I will vehemently disagree that some records don't sound better on vinyl. I don't have the setup to really notice a difference but a good friend of mine does. I brought a copy of Blizzard of Ozz to his house once and we played it back to back with his FLAC file of the same album and the vinyl blew it out of the water. Now I will readily admit that isn't something that happens a lot but it's not the unicorn some people like to believe.

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You preferred how that album sounded on that setup, it wasn't innately better... Vinyl adds coloring into the sound that takes it farther away from what the artist and intended for it to be.

You can prefer whatever sound you like, but to say an album on vinyl is objectively better than the same album on any other medium of sufficient quality is ridiculous.

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Wow, you are in the head of every artist who ever recorded and you know what sound they intended for their album to be. That's impressive.

This science is clear!

Geriatric Punk said:

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TMoney2007 said:

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Its just preference. The whole "organic sound" and "its just different" is completely BS and provably false.

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Did you really just use the "your preference is BS" argument?

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No. The justification he uses for his preference is BS... He doesn't need to justify it at all, but he makes things up to support it... and that's BS.

His preference is completely valid. The fake terms he makes up aren't.

Callate Donnie said:

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TMoney2007 said:

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Junkhead said:

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TMoney2007 said:

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Junkhead said:

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I buy vinyl for many reasons. A lot of it is nostalgia, some of it is collectibility, wanting to support the artists since they don't make jack **** from streaming, and also because I like to have something tangible in my hands. I bought CD's long after streaming/downloading became the norm for the same reason. But I will vehemently disagree that some records don't sound better on vinyl. I don't have the setup to really notice a difference but a good friend of mine does. I brought a copy of Blizzard of Ozz to his house once and we played it back to back with his FLAC file of the same album and the vinyl blew it out of the water. Now I will readily admit that isn't something that happens a lot but it's not the unicorn some people like to believe.

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You preferred how that album sounded on that setup, it wasn't innately better... Vinyl adds coloring into the sound that takes it farther away from what the artist and intended for it to be.
It doesn't all sound the same and that's fine, but the idea that analog produces sounds that digital can't is BS.
You can prefer whatever sound you like, but to say an album on vinyl is objectively better than the same album on any other medium of sufficient quality is ridiculous.

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Couldn't disagree more and countless music industry professionals would agree with me.

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Unfortunately, you're all wrong... because its an opinion. You could bake all the extra color that your setup produces into a digital recording and it would sound exactly the same. The reason you PREFER one over the other is that all the components of the turntable and the noise innate to the system changes the sound produced from the recording. There's nothing special about these changes that couldn't be captured in a digital recording.

This is a fact, not an opinion.

Alternately, you could run signal from a DAC through the right set of amplifiers and get to the same point.

It's math. There's nothing audible that can't be recorded digitally and perfectly reproduced. Also, you should look up the definition of the word "objective" because your opinion about how something sounds is not objective. It is subjective. The sound from an LP isn't objectively better than the sound from a digital recording. You prefer it. Stop stating your opinion as fact because by definition it can't be a fact... because its your opinion. It's just your preference, and that's fine. But to say that analog playback is objectively better than digital is provably false.

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Maybe it just all sounds the same to you. No shame in that.

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It doesn't all sound the same and that's fine, but the idea that analog can produce sounds that digital can't is BS. This is a fact.

I'd love to see how the lack of sonic difference is "provably false".

Junkhead said:

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I'd love to see how the lack of sonic difference is "provably false".

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Once again, its not the difference that is false. It is the idea that analog recordings and reproduction can produce sounds that digital can't. This is false. There is no audible sound that can't be recorded digitally and reproduced.

expresswrittenconsent said:

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TMoney2007 said:

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Junkhead said:

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I buy vinyl for many reasons. A lot of it is nostalgia, some of it is collectibility, wanting to support the artists since they don't make jack **** from streaming, and also because I like to have something tangible in my hands. I bought CD's long after streaming/downloading became the norm for the same reason. But I will vehemently disagree that some records don't sound better on vinyl. I don't have the setup to really notice a difference but a good friend of mine does. I brought a copy of Blizzard of Ozz to his house once and we played it back to back with his FLAC file of the same album and the vinyl blew it out of the water. Now I will readily admit that isn't something that happens a lot but it's not the unicorn some people like to believe.

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You preferred how that album sounded on that setup, it wasn't innately better... Vinyl adds coloring into the sound that takes it farther away from what the artist and intended for it to be.

You can prefer whatever sound you like, but to say an album on vinyl is objectively better than the same album on any other medium of sufficient quality is ridiculous.

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Wow, you are in the head of every artist who ever recorded and you know what sound they intended for their album to be. That's impressive.

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So your argument is that what is put into the digital files or onto the vinyl isn't how the artists intend for it to sound? Or at least that they have a specific generic setup in mind when they mix the recordings?

Coloring it differently than what they planned for or expected produces something other than how they intended the music to sound... and this is fine, but there's nothing about an analog setup that is anything except changing the sound to suit your preference.

There is nothing wrong with it, but the idea that they way that you prefer your music to sound is objectively superior to the way that anyone else prefers their music to sound is BS.

Does vinyl really sound better? An engineer explains

I guess this engineer doesn't know **** about his profession.

Quote:

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That warm vinyl sound: "I think this is what people like about it: it pins very closely to the way that human beings hear music organically," Gonsalves said. "It's very mid-range-y and very warm," a sound that flatters the fuzzy guitars of rock 'n' roll.

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An engineer that works in the vinyl industry thinks it sounds better. Who would think like that?

Hagen95 said:

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An engineer that works in the vinyl industry thinks it sounds better. Who would think like that?

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But Tmoney knows better.

Junkhead said:

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Does vinyl really sound better? An engineer explains

I guess this engineer doesn't know **** about his profession.

Quote:

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That warm vinyl sound: "I think this is what people like about it: it pins very closely to the way that human beings hear music organically," Gonsalves said. "It's very mid-range-y and very warm," a sound that flatters the fuzzy guitars of rock 'n' roll.

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"what people like about it"... Some people prefer how it sounds... That doesn't make it objectively superior.

Nice job googling "does vinyl sound better than digital" and literally picking the first link. Great research there...

An audio engineer that works at a company that produces vinyl isn't the guy to ask about the mathematics of sound reproduction.

The same article also says this at the top after it asks if vinyl sounds better... "Is that true? Kind of. Sometimes. It depends." Hard hitting stuff there.