Is Vinyl Worth It

Must we sacrifice? If you're a music lover you must have both worlds (analog/digital), because of the music that's simply not available in either world. Would you give up music that you love, because it's inconvenient? Or, because there's not enough air?

If you've got both then you'll discover your preference, and if you're an audiophile you'll work on the sound, and your preference might flip and flip again.

BTW - I find my digital side to be a big pain in the butt, not convenient, and frustrating. It falls within the same pitfalls as computers, cell phones, and the like. I put up with it, because I need the music.

And, right now I prefer my vinyl, because my system is currently stronger on that side.

I also remember Harold Youngblood, he passed in 2008, but we were friends for 20 years. I never heard of him deciding to abandon vinyl for digital, but he believed that the best of both required that the equipment be up to the task.
I was into vinyl in the 80s and 90s because of an experience I had at Harold's (one of the audiophile experiences I've always been chasing to duplicate) but like many lifestyle dictated digital later, mostly as a matter of available space.
I've rekindled my interest in audio as a whole and am back into vinyl in a very big way......I also love the best digital has to offer. I have a VPI HRX with a Kiseki purple heart cartridge on the analog side and an Esoteric K03 SACD player with a Bryston BDP2 on the digital side.

Someone said once that "music is what happens between the notes"
and that in my opinion sums up the difference between vinyl and digital.....digital does a great job at providing you an accurate noise free picture of a recording but on a flat plane.....whereas the best vinyl rig will flesh the images out and provide you with a very intimate view of the instruments, textures, decays....vocal phrasing etc....vinyl just sounds more musical and the fiddeliness of it is a plus in my view....I love the whole ritual of cleaning, changing sides, setting up a rig, tweaking the setup etc....
So in a word YES, I think Vinyl is worth it.....but only if you're willing to commit to it with a proper rig and that's true for digital as well....

Well put Stewart, and very nice front ends you have there!

Everytime I play Dean Martin's "Dream With Dean" (original pressing), Jo Stafford's "Ballad of The Blues," or Norman Luboff's "But Beautiful," I know why I love vinyl so much. I'd like to hear the digital setup that will do what these records will do on a high end vinyl setup.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dean-Martin-Dream-With-Dean-LP-Stereo-/381358804911?hash=item58cac18faf

http://www.ebay.com/itm/JO-STAFFORD-Ballad-Of-The-Blues-LP-Columbia-Six-Eye-Stereo-1959-/400962458749?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_15&hash=item5d5b39947d

http://www.ebay.com/itm/But-Beautiful-The-Norman-Luboff-Choir-LP-Vinyl-Album-Record-Columbia-6EYE-/141529734895?hash=item20f3d45eef

I am in the slow process of re-doing my entire system; only the preamp will stay. I have to say re-learning record playing geometry and setup and cleaning and on and on is less painful and way more straight forward than computer audio. As far as playback, the only thing I have heard that give me pause in the opportunity cost of vinyl is the Bricasti DAC.
This is amongst other upper-end digital.