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?......

I like the ritual of playing vinyl and how that ritual can extract a different type of focus from me. I like the manually of being in touch with the materials and objects. I like looking at the turntable work and the vinyl spin. I like witnessing the outlandish subtlety of the tonearm floating along the groove. I like the cover art I can hold in my hand ... a digital image doesn’t accrue history and change in its journey through time like my album covers do; instead they inhabit an abstract realm ungrounded in the physical world. I like the programmatic imperative of the LP side, of one thing following another, of (over?)determined sequence which must be physically intruded upon and intercepted to upset. I like the needle touching vinyl and introducing ’anticipatory sound’ then tracking the groove and reproducing music. I like being forced to get up out of my seat to flip/remove/replace/insert and being forced to give myself over to the process instead of distracting myself. I like the inscrutable struggles that inhere in relating to the mechanical nature of TTs and analogue ... it’s like a relationship and shifts around. I like locating the hole. I like looking at vinyl after it’s cleaned gleaming. I like the goodies and posters that come with albums (I still have my DSOTM poster with green infrared photo of the Great Pyramids of Giza). I like the labels, the colored vinyl, the smell of papers. I like the surprises (I once took my parents Panasonic TT receiver and speakers outside into the backyard on a bright summer morning while laying out catching some rays ... at one point the sound started becoming weird ... the vinyl had softened in the sun and was melting and drooping over the side of the platter as it played like Dali’s soft watches). I like that you have to be there. HERE. Not just anywhere, the music is where the TT is not where you are. I like the moments bodies have hit the ground hard and the needles jumps. I like flipping through the stacks in record stores and how one gets their flip finger tuned up and dialed in ... where else in life does one get an opportunity to exercise their flip skills like that? I like how moving heavy stacks of albums reminds me how cumbersome and recalcitrant the material world is and that I have to relate to it and cannot escape it. I like how the embodied actions of spinning vinyl can, at times, have a nostalgia wired into them which sometimes connects with the music being played and with memory and which all on occasion align themselves in a manner that elicits felt emotions that are not summoned simply by the sounds alone.

I don’t like that TT drive belt salesmen can retire rich after a career selling $30 rubber bands.

I’ve enjoyed reading this thread. I definitely love playing vinyl records. Like others it is a mix of nostalgia, the physical process, the beautiful record covers to read while I listen, the hunt for old vinyl in the record shops, and the beautiful music that LPs can produce.
But honestly it mainly comes down to two things for me.
One is that with an LP it makes me relax into the music more, I am less distracted, I play the whole record, and I feel more like I am at a concert and in the audience. The process of playing a side of an LP naturally discourages skipping tracks or repeating tracks. It encourages me to instead put on the LP, sit down, and relax for 20-60mins with beautiful music, just like I would if I went to a concert.
Two is that I love classical music recorded in the 1960s, 70s, and early 80s. The recording engineers at the time really knew how to properly capture a performance and make it feel like you are in the audience (not the engineer in the recording booth). And the best way to get these recordings is on the original vinyl LPs from that era. Plus there are so many wonderful musicians, performances and recordings from that time that only exist on LP. And it is really fun to go hunting for records and finding new performances.
If I have any kvetching to do, it is less about vinyl vs non-vinyl and more to do with the esthetic of modern recording engineers and producers. Back in the 60s/70s the target was speakers with a record player in a front room and people who wanted to feel like they have performers in the living room and the engineer/producers were masters at that esthetic. Now it seems like the target is headphone listeners who want to hear all the details and feel like they are the producer or in the recording studio.

fleschler

The mastering of the format is generally the key to great sound.

You've hit the nail on the head for me. As an engineer I know that vinyl is a hugely outdated and compromised format that requires electronic acrobatics just to get a flat frequency response before you even think about minimising the noise getting 200µV up to a healthy line level.
But I love it and will always choose to listen to a vinyl recording over a digital one.
My theory for which I have no real evidence whatsoever is that the format stops the mastering engineer from compressing the hell out of a track. It's well known that if you play a song through a hi-fi and then play it again a fraction louder e.g. 1/2 -1 dB then subjectively you'll prefer the second listening. I believe this trick has been used by many an unscrupulous snake oil salesman in listening tests. So when the mastering engineer comes to master for digital then he/she knows the song will end up back to back with some other artists work in a playlist. The temptation to increase the compression (and subjective loudness) to make the track 'pop' will be hard to resist. 
A recording needs to be specifically mastered for vinyl, if it weren't then a lot of digital masters would make the stylus pop straight out of the groove and skid across the surface. And no vinyl lover minds turning up a bit to compensate for a quiet recording, so there's no motive for the mastering engineer to go mad with the compression.
Even if I'm wrong, I can't help liking vinyl with all its flaws... as the British radio DJ, John Peel said 'Listen mate, life has surface noise'.

Can't say I like the vinyl record but have grown from it a long time ago. Why get stuck in a few piles of vinyl when a whole world of music is in front of your feet and just wait for you to discover new wonderful music that Streaming offers.
I'm not going to sit in front of a vinyl record player, life is too short for this :)

I have Chord Qutest DAC. It sounds great.
But it can't match vinyl in term of tone, live dynamics, and general musicality. 
But I understand why many people don't hear advantages of analog sound. The problems are: transistor amplifiers and dull, low sensitive speakers. Most Hi-End systems don't translate a real instrument tones and most of audiophiles ton't care about tone.

My records are played on a Pro-Ject 2Experience TT with a Sumiko Blue Point #2 cartridge and a Pro-Ject Phono Box 2 @ $1600 all together in 2005. I play my digital music through a Bluesound Vault($750Music Direct demo)  music server, using an Oppo 105 ($1200) as a DAC.  I have some albums where I own the record, CD(burned to the Bluesound) and a High Res file downloaded on the Bluesound. I have NEVER had anyone say they like the sound of the digital files better than the analog. The High Res files come close. Some say they are not sure if one actually sounds better but the records are nicer to listen to. That being said the convenience of the Bluesound server can't be beat. To be honest nostalgia may play a part in liking albums more, my friends at work ALWAYS complain that I almost never listen to anything from this century. Mostly true with the exception of Lake Street Dive and Leon Bridges. Bottom line ENJOY THE MUSIC.   

Why do YOU love vinyl?

The question is a little odd, isn’t it? I mean, does anyone really love vinyl? Vinyl is noisy, fragile, inconvenient. Vinyl forces you to either listen to the songs in the order they are on the record, or get up and change tracks. Remote vinyl? No such thing. The very best vinyl, Better Records Hot Stampers, are insanely expensive. Or the 45s, again have you jumping up and down all the time.

With vinyl you have to have a masters in physics, geometry, and engineering just to set one up. Oh, enough jigs and meters and test records to fill a mad-scientists laboratory.

Then also with vinyl you have to put up with all the looks and comments from people who "know" you must have a screw loose, or be some kind of troglodyte with nostalgia for the good old days that never were. Or if its not that then the ones who "know" it doesn’t measure, its not "high-rez", and what you really love is "distortion".

Okay, I guess maybe you could love vinyl, at least a little, because you know that in spite of all that it is the one true audiophile Gold Standard, the one digital is always being said to be "like". The highest compliment ever paid any digital anything always seems to be, analog-"like". Which tells you right there they all know (really know, not the fake scare quotes "know") which one is really The One.

But even that is kind of weak, nowhere near enough to make me, or probably anyone else, really love vinyl.

No. Sorry.

Dunno about anyone else, but what I love is music. Just absolutely love it. Always have. Probably always will. And the better it sounds, the more I love it. Which, unfortunately for me, nothing else makes music sound better than vinyl.

Yes, vinyl is tricky to setup.
There are too many variables - turntable, tonearm, cartridge, phonostage, step up transformers.
It has noise, more distortions and other imperfections.
But it give you a real filing of tone and dynamics of musical instruments and more soul of an interpretation.
It relates more to the golden era of tube recordings from 1955 to 1965. These records made with tube equipment without Dolby and other harmful noise reduction.
For example, I have many RCA records The Heifetz-Piatigorsky Concerts series (1955-1970).
The quality of these records after 1964 dramatically dropped, because RCA recording studio moving to transistor equipment.
It it also important to play vinyl on transparent equipment like tube SET amp and high sensitive speakers. Most of popular Hi-End equipment is very detailed in upper mid and high frequencies but not transparent in the mid-range and lower mid-range.

I have a classic guitar, it sounds very good.
All quality media today such as analog, digital or magnetic are fantastic at reproducing music. But there is no one who would get a funnel gramophone or play wax rolls just to "get closer to reality"? The best thing about vinyl records is that you can heat them and make a fruit dish, for example. When you are born you have a perfect hearing, then it quickly becomes worse for each day. So watch out and enjoy now;)

@lelleturbo, so a funnel gramophone and wax rolls gets you closer to reality? Wow what insight, maybe you can do that while you play your geetar and make your fruit bowls. Enjoy the music

tooblue, you misunderstood my joke :)
What I mean is that sometimes we forget the reality of all technology.
I really think that everyone who likes music should have the opportunity to do it in their favorite way and use everything that makes it better in his / her ears. Just think it's boring when reading forums where others try to talk about what's right for you. But it is so we humans are created, unfortunately .....

@lelleturbo, don't take my retort too seriously, I was just yanking your chain and actually enjoyed your sense of humor. Thanks for posting.

vv32bl,

Back in the mid 80's I started collecting classical records, around the same time cd's became available. French Deccas were being blown out at bargain prices. There were also Phillips, RCA, London's, and a few other brand records still available, that audiophiles really were not looking for.  Audiophiles were looking for London FFSS, Decca FFSS, RCA Shaded Dogs labels, and Mercury Living Presence albums.                                                                                                                                             In the late 80's I returned to South Florida and continued looking for sought after albums.  In North Miami Beach there were a couple of used record shops that I didn't care for.  One of them would reseal used records, and even apply black shoe polish to them.  There was also a shop in Pompano Florida that had a much better selection at better prices.  Unfortunately I was living seventy miles south of Pompano in the Homestead Florida area.                                                                                                                                                                                                An old audio pal of mine and I would take turns driving to Pompano once every week for about two years, buying used records. These trips ended abruptly on my part when I took about ten records and a Beethoven Nine Symphony boxed set in very good condition to the check out counter.  Upon returning home and taking the records out of the bag, the Beethoven boxed set was never put in the bag.  After checking the receipt I then noticed that I did not pay for it.  Whoever had priced the set had priced it lower than they were willing to let it go for, so they set it aside without telling me.                                                                                                                                                                                                      They lost a good customer, and did me a favor that I didn't fully appreciate at the time.  Since that time I have not purchased any used records, and have purchased nothing but new reissued records that are delivered to my house from different mail order companies.  Many of these albums are forty five rpm that are on two discs.  They are not inexpensive but they are extremely well worth whatever you have to pay for them, because of the "you are there sound".                                                                                                                                                                 Audiophiles that are just getting a turntable now days have no idea how fortunate they are.  All they have to do is sign onto a web site and pick out records that I drove thousands of miles just looking for back in the 80's.  In the years before the internet buying sought after record albums was driving,driving and more driving, with a small reward if any.  

I haven’t been on audiogon for a very very long time so please forgive me and my brief history of my second passion in life of being an audiophilist like my dad, occasionally rears its head on forums while I’m not in my favorite chair listening to music. Since my dad being an electronics engineer managed a Kent HiFi store in the late 60’s, I fell in love with reproduction of music and it’s aim to be as real as possible to the original music source back then. .......... ..So why do you love or hate vinyl? I’ll admit the old black record has taken of again with a passion and even my son in-law a generation behind me,is buying vinyl today like its going out of fashion just as I did back in the late 60’s ,70’s and through into the 80’s when CD’s came on board in my life. ...The above question has been brought up at many many dinners over the decades with other enthusiasts and my friends. I have come to the conclusion like my father that if you are OCD about perfection in this life unfortunate as I am and he is , your brain can’t turn off from imperfections ,its in our DNA .... Well you can’t but help hear and think of continual and the mounting imperfections while listening to vinyl records...Our thoughts when playing vinyl. "Is my turntable bias amp coloring this sound" or "is my stylus coloring this reproduction as well" or "is it turning at the exact same speed as the original master cut from the master real to real" . I’m also thinking, I can’t get true bass because I know vinyl can’t be cut deep or wide enough to a low music to go below 100hz . Am I building up static and altering coloring my sound?Did I clean the record properly before I put it on ,or crap the one i really hated is that a warp on my very expensive ordered in collectible vinyl record and every play it changes its sound quality because of needle friction cutting into that soft vinyl record its wearing the record out...The questions just kept coming but not any more ....So then I sit in front of one of my pure direct original gold mastered mobile fidelity SACD ,Steely Dan , Patrica Barber ,Eagles and I stop thinking and start enjoying, everything being perfect in the world again ,listening to a beautiful rich deep accurate surround sound stage whether it be stereo or multi ....So sorry guys and girls I fall into the later category I hate vinyl......Lived it, been there , done that. Besides these old bones like everything to be done with a remote . I don’t want to get up every 20 minutes flipping vinyl as I did way back when ,,50 years ago.. Thankgod for digital perfection.

@maverick11359, I didn't get that you were joking till you said the phrase "digital perfection", you had me going there.

I like Vinyl because it is analog, and I don’t like digital 44.1kHz sampling rate, I believe 44.1kHz sampling rate is too low resolution.
Although there are a lot of Hi Res streaming service online, but you can’t tell whether the original studio recording is 44.1kHz recording "upscale" to Hi Res bit rate. There is no sound quality improvement by "upscaling".
Read this and I lost confidence in CD’s 44.1kHz sampling rate
https://electronics.howstuffworks.com/is-the-sound-on-vinyl-records-better-than-on-cds-or-dvds.htm?utm_source=howstuffworks&utm_medium=recirc