No two audio enthusiasts will ever agree on the greatest music playback system ever, but let’s take a look at vinyl vs the others.
Vinyl was nearly put out to pasture by compact discs. We were all sold on the idea they were indestructible, well how many of us have well loved and over played scratched cds, they get dirty and the player skips, when they were new it was eye opening, you did not have to flip the cd after only 15-30 minutes of play...but for me, and exception of one or two players I owned, it just sounded off, a little bit cold, very accurate but maybe too accurate...it lost some of its exciting sound, a bit well digital and the first cd’s were not very good...the recoding was off and sounded harsh...they also were more expensive to buy than vinyl had been...they lasted all of twenty years before audio files were invented and people ripped their cds to their hard drives and tossed out hundreds and thousands of dollars full of cds into land fills and moth balled their CD players, many dumped their vinyl and cassette decks along with their cd’s...I wish I had bought all those vinyl records at the time...yet there was still a dedicated force still building turn tables and selling records second hand...a small little cult of vinyl worshipers...
then came Napster and followed by Pandora and then Spotify...all but killing FM radio once Blu tooth was invented, the iPod and mo3 players came before and the tangible medium of Vinyl, Cassette and Compact disc was considered obsolete by a whole new Generation of techies...no we forward to tardy with multiple audio streamers, streaming in cd or near cd and allegedly lossless that is better than cd, but based on your dac and the capabilities of your internet speed, it is the lazymans radio...
but in the last ten years, young hippaters discovered their grandparents records and its regained top share of the physical audio format...though many are usinh ion or Crowley turn tables and ripping it to their computers, it is a start...
Vinyl from purely listening with a good turntable and phono pre amp and amplifier and speakers is a much better format for oure enjoyment of music...it’s tangible, it’s a ritual and it’s fun...you can steadily improve the sound by tinkering with parts of the chain..with digital its dependent on a computer and its chip set and algorithms to capture the music..it can sound cold and impersonal...the record industry restrained compact discs performance because of copy rights and piracy same with dvd and blu ray...there is no such problem with vinyl, it’s only limited to you pocket book and type of stylus you can afford...
For my personal tastes, I like owning my physical media, vs paying nearly 300.00 a year just to have the privilege of having music in a library that can be wiped out with the service going bankrupt or other calamity...
In the end I listen to a balance of sources...including radio...I just enjoy music as a whole...but I will not use a omni directional speaker like my Sonia one-I need high fidelity not mono...it was not pleasant to listen too...vinyl is and will always be king as long as music lovers just want simplicity...and to enjoy the ritual and the rich sound vinyl can produce vs digital formats, even lossless
