Vinyl lovers I must be crazy

Ask a witness what occurred during the "crime" and they will recall most accurately within the first 24 hours. Every 24 hours later, accurate recall diminishes dramatically. 40 years later...it's the emotions tied to the music or event we recall. These feelings tied to an event, like in your case music, can make listening to music with your head stuck in a toilet to be the most memorable moments in your life... possibly the most enjoy full.

Disclaimer: do NOT stick your head in the toilet...unless you're planning on flushing.

I imagine you have a good system if your cables are as expensive as you imply. Consequently, "dabble" in vinyl won't be a huge equipment outlay as a good turntable, cartidge, and a moderate priced tube phono stage might give you a taste of vinyl magic for your curiosity. I think a turntable w/cartridge in the $900 range and a good used tube phono stage for $3-500 should get you back in the ball game. If you don't like it, you can sell it without much of a loss. I came back using a used B&O I had forgotten I had and with a $100 phono stage got hooked. Got a better phono stage, than a VPI turntable. Now, I'm 90% vinyl for music listening. Also, replacing my solid state with tube gear (first with a preamp and later amp) finally got me to the full analog heaven. Now, I can't listen to any digital source for long after getting used to the warmth and lush sound of tube analog. I hope it works for you as I'm a music lover of your same generation and taste. Best wishes and happy listening.

The 70's system was a all vinyl system and my current system I strictly listen to Cd's. Is that the problem listening to CD's?

All the nostalgia aside, it seems you answered your own question. I remember one of the Stereophile reviewers stating that a correctly set up analog system will always beat a digital system, or something close to it. I don't have a problem with people enjoying their CDs, but for me personally, a digital system can NEVER be as enjoyable as analog so I don't subscribe to the "enjoy your music irrespective of the medium" camp. To me, my system and my music are one organic whole; one cannot exist without the other to provide ME with an enjoyable experience. My tube amp smells like music to me when it's on; the smell of hot tubes evokes a visceral sensation that I associate with listening to beautiful music. The organic sound of vinyl simply cannot be matched by CD, SACDs, or whatever else they come up with out there because digital's very existence is predicated on a flawed concept - it tries to reproduce what is a purely human creation. Perhaps I'm getting too philosophical here so here's my stance on the reason you don't like your CDs: the only way to truly experience music and fully appreciate its beauty is through analog playback. Digital playback should be left for boring work commutes and cleaning as background filler.

You are not crazy. Go back to vinyl, you will really enjoy it just as much as you did before.

I find that the only thing I can play my hundreds of LPs on is a turntable/LP player. If I try to cram an LP into a CD player it bends to crap and makes me look like a fool. Or set an LP next to my Squeezebox Touch...nothing. It doesn't work. SO...I use a Linn/Akito/AT400mla...that seems to do the trick!