Why Do You Still Have Vinyl if You Don't Play it?

Mitch, it occured to me that perhaps this last part of your OP is the 'real' question:

I don't know what it's going to take for me to let go.

My own answer would be that whatever 'it' is (that it would take for me to let go) it would be outside of any 'audio considerations'. It would be something more 'life affecting' like: a fire, or an illness, or a physical move to smaller accomodations; something like that.

In his preceeding post, Minorl again recounts a (purely anecdotal) experience many/most of us have had: comparing the same piece of music in different formats. But for me, and for many people (including Minorl, I bet ;--) the likelyhood of having a given piece of music in multiple formats is nil. Which is why, earlier in this thread, it suggested that when viewed through the lens of "the music", the idea of completely abandoning a particular format sort of goes out the window ;--) And as a matter of fact (coming back to Minorl's experience) one evening a friend and I assembled all the music we could find between both our collections which we had in two or more formats. This included not only LP's and CD's, but reel-to-reel and cassette. We even had a few selections in all four formats! And the startling and unexpected outcome, was that there was no clear winner or loser!

At one point not long ago, I had considered doing some serious culling (of all my 'formats'.) Then I remembered that years and years ago, I had done just that -- and lived to regret it. So once again I say, "if you hang on to the music, you'll never have reason to regret it."
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Nsgarch; your post is well stated and written. I guess the point I was trying to make but failing, was that the music was great using my digital format, but when I actually listened to vinyl and more importantly, compared using the same recordings in digital and vinyl, this showed me clearly what I am missing in digital. This is not to say that digital isn't great now. it is very good. However, there still are great differences between the formats. Not as wide a gap as before, but everyone I know that has listened to digital and then to vinyl (especially the ones that are not into music or audiophiles), jaws drop at the differences they hear.

To me, and my absolute enjoyment of good music, this is why I still have vinyl.

When a format comes that is compact as digital and as good or better than vinyl in terms of sound stage reproduction, dept, etc. I have no problem moving to that new format. having albums around and turn tables and phono stages, etc. and cds all over the place does take up room. I would love to have a music server/DAC do everything as well or better than my analog equipment. Unfortunately, it is not there yet and when it does come out, initially, I wouldn't be able to afford it anyway. So to me, it isn't about storage or space it always has been about the music. I played classical music via violin, oboe, bassoon, clarinet, sax, etc. I have a real problem if the reproduced music doesn't sound like I know it should. The worst part as I mentioned previously, is one can get use to a certain sound reproduction and come to believe it is accurate, and then listen to a different set up or analog and understand that they really are missing something.

so, really,,,enjoy

Like many here, I've gone back and forth with this very experience. I had a collection of 1,000+ back in the late 80's that I sold off in bulk when CDs overtook my musical life. My regret was not hanging on to some of my favorites and collectibles.

On three separate occasions I've done the same thing with my CD collection - only hanging on to a handful of favorites and/or collectibles. Most recently, I've dumped my favorite CDs since I have them all ripped to FLAC on multiple hard drives (which is how I predominantly listen to music now anyway) and kept only the collectibles. They are stored in a box and will get sold off when the economy is better and people are willing to buy such things again.

All this said, I bought a turntable a few years ago and picked up some old favorites cheap and have fallen in love all over again. Mostly, it is acoustic jazz where vinyl just does it for me - even more so than my high resolution digital versions.

So my advice is; Get rid of the bulk and listening to what is convenient and makes you happy (I do file based network audio). BUT hold on to your favorites and collectibles - even if it means boxing them up and putting them in a closet for now. In ten or twenty years you will likely cherish the memories and the experience again.

I have about 1000 Lp's...I thinned them down from 5000 around 8 years ago...The sonic refinement of CD's and associated playback equipment seems to have improved greatly in the past few years.
Because of the comparable simplicity and ease of using CD's I find myself growing more and more lazy...I used to find the "ritual" of selecting an Lp...removing the jacket from its vinyl sleeve..removing the LP from it's inner sleeve..setting it on the platter..setting the pressure clamp..using the static gun & using the dust brush well worth it because of vastly superior sonics. Now all that occurs to me is that I have to put it all back when it's finished.
I've got some really great stuff..(I'm an acoustic jazz lover)..I've decided to put some time into making high quality CD's from the probably 100 or so LP's that have both performance and sonic worthiness..The third requirement
will be a quiet surface...There's no fast way to do this.
I have a product called a "Super Scope"..I believe it was designed by Marantz..It is a studio grade pro-gear CD recorder and the quality of reproduction is truly excellent.
I don't know if I'll be able to part with my hard won and precious vinyl..but at least this way I'm going to listen to all the wonderful music.

I think it comes down to nostalgia. LPs sound different, there is no getting around that (I said different, not better) But there are clear advantages to digital, especially hi-res. I think there is no coincidence that almost all my LPs are from the 70s and 80s (I am 37, see where I am going with this?). The sounds takes us back. Flipping records takes us back. There is a reason I also have a modest collection of CEDs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitance_Electronic_Disc.

With CEDs, Blu-ray is FAR superior in every way (heck, even LaserDisc is superior!) but it looks the way video did as a kid, just as vinyl sounds like music did.

I would guess when you do listen to vinyl, you are in that kind of mood. Pare down your collection, but keep the music that is imprinted on times of your past.