Why do YOU love Vinyl/or hate vinyl

@mrearl, don't hold back, tell us how you really feel about Rhino Records. Your handle reminds me of a Ry Cooder song. Enjoy the music.

I've read through most of the posts.  The extremists either hate or love digital or vinyl (or R2R).  I have heard many systems where the sound detracts from the recording/performance.  This is the problem. 

I have higher end electronics which provide superior sonic reproduction.  Pop and clicks are not a problem 95% of the time unless the LP was pressed on poor quality vinyl or the LP was abused by the prior owner.  The vast majority of my 25,000 LPs do not have pop and click noises.  Those that have those noises are so quickly dispatches by my analog equipment that they do not detract from the performance. 

As to hiss, my older recordings often were recorded in the late 50's and 60's on 1/4" tape which had hiss.  If one doesn't hear the hiss on a digital transfer, they are missing the high end.   Early full track recordings from the early 50's had virtually no hiss.   

As to digital recordings, I have 7,000 and have been fortunate to have excellent remastered CDs.  Only since 2006 have I enjoyed CDs due to superior DAC/players.  I have remastered CDs which kill the original LPs which can sound like mud or bright and compressed.  I also have LPs that sound more open and tonally right on LPs than CDs despite good remastering. 

The mastering of the format is generally the key to great sound.   I have excellent sounding Heifetz CDs and mediocre remastered ones.  Likewise, LPs.  Heifetz on 78s are a hassle to play but also can sound great, better than the LP and CD masterings. 

I totally disagree with the camps of digital versus analog.  I have friends who are in either camp and three friends who, like me, savor all formats (except cassette).  As to cassette, I have made fabulous sounding recordings on a high end Tandberg in the 1980s but switched to R2R and now digital.  Pre-recorded cassettes generally suck (sorry but having had about 500 of them, all other formats except MP3 are superior).  

I too enjoy both digital and analog formats, I don't rate one as objectively better than other. I have optimized both my setups over many years of equipment upgrades, provenance of recordings greatly determines sound quality hierarchy.
I also enjoy the unique qualities of the listening experience of both formats. With vinyl I listen to entire albums, concept albums make sense when played in their entirety. Also, vinyl lends itself to focusing more on one artist. With digital (streaming and/or rips from my thousands of cds) my listening sessions are free form mixes, a stream of consciousness experience. Sometimes its amazing where these mixes go!

I wasted a lot of my life pursuing allegedly "accurate" sound instead of enjoyable sound.  Which is "accurate" but if a decision has to go one way or the other, "enjoyable" is the right way to go.

LOL, looks like a bunch of us who enjoy vinyl just don't pass Mach12's Audiophile Purity Test.  We better hand in our audiophile cards, pronto!

I have listened to a (mostly) all digital system since the late 80's, and up until recently spent most of my time streaming my ripped CDs and Tidal to my system, using my ipad interface.  With countless songs at my fingertips I found myself surfing music more than really listening.  I couldn't even remember most of the artists I listened to on Tidal.

It was setting up my turntable again that made me notice how much more I pay attention to the music when spinning vinyl.  I upgraded to a nice new turntable and it's aided my focusing more on music than I have in may years.  It's routine now for me to sit down for at least an album side, often a whole album.   Just tonight I listened to 4 whole albums!


Anyway....this doesn't support Mach12's thesis so I suppose he'll ignore that data.  Now, where did I put my audiophile card again?......