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 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 that what new LPs cost vs. CDs. A 10-second visit to http://www.acousticsounds.com reveals that most LPs are $20 and up.