04-30-07: Uraniumcommittee
04-30-07: Johnnyb53
"Well, sort of, but you have to factor in the price of a turntable to get started."
Not if you already had one, or inherited one from your father, or got one used, cheap.
Well, geez, I sort of knew that, but I think it's safe to say that most of the same people who sold off/dropped off their vinyl in the '80s/90s got rid of their turntables too. How do you account for the BIG upswing in turntable models available? If there weren't a general vinyl renaissance, Music Hall and Pro-Ject would be scaling back or going out of business and Rega would be down to 2 or 3 models. Instead, they've all expanded their lines. They wouldn't be doing that if people weren't going out and buying NEW turntables in increasing numbers. And I doubt that most people are ponying up $800-2000 for turntables just to hit the garage sales at a quarter a pop.
The vinyl resurgence mentioned in the audiophile press is addressing the increase in NEW vinyl sales. It's an easy statistic to track, much easier than tracking traffic in used vinyl. It's also easy to find out what new LPs cost vs. CDs. A 10-second visit to
http://www.acousticsounds.com reveals that most LPs are $20 and up.
The REAL reason for the vinyl upswing is that vinyl has returned as the high resolution medium of choice. The choices were SACD, DVD-A, and LP. The suits never delivered digital hi-rez (SACD, DVD-A) in the numbers and variety promised. Now audiophiles are voting for LP with their pocketbooks.
After all, DSD may sample at 2.7 megahertz, but the resolution of analog is granular down to the oxide or vinyl molecules.