Analog is the new pink

When people rave about their first, very low-end analog setup, I believe what they really mean is, "I'm shocked it doesn't sound bad."

It's hip to listen to vinyl. The attraction is only the "coolness" factor. It has nothing at all to do with sound quality or even music. If you don't understand this either you don't remember being cool, you never were cool or you don't have kids who are cool.
Will some of these new vinyl buyers become converts to hifi? We can hope.

I was going to disagree with some of the above comments point for point, but I think it's fair to say that there isn't much I can agree with at all. If by "taking younger people's interest in vinyl too seriously" you mean that they will abandon "easier" media, then you're probably correct, but I think some of you underestimate the impact of vinyl (analog) and young people in general.

As a present this past Xmas I gave my 20 yr old son a basic vinyl setup consisting of a '70's vintage DD table (SL something or other), AT cartridge, Cambridge Audio phono stage and decent IC. It was accompanied by original copies of Beatles "Sergeant Pepper's LHCB", Michael Jackson "Thriller", Miles Davis "Bitches Brew", Tokyo String Qt.'s "Bartok/String Quartets", and "The Godfather" soundtrack (he is an aspiring film maker/director). This is a young man who is already living on his own and supporting himself :-) , and not easily swayed by pressure and trends. His text message to me that night after going home and listening to his records: "Holy shit, this is the first time that I have really heard music in my apt.!"

He is now actively hunting vinyl on weekends.

I think vinyl on a "garage-sale" TT sounds better than most digital. Timrhu, perhaps I'm not "getting" you but, if you're serious, I wholeheartedly disagree with your comment about analog playback merely being "cool" rather than actually sounding better.

Frogman, good to hear your son is on the right track for life-long music listening and enjoyment. I will have to temper this by stating that I don't think he would be in the majority of the "younger people" crowd I was refering to-rather the exception. I was of course speaking in generalities. We audiophile denizens as a group are the 1/10 of 1% of the normal listening and music buying population. The other posters makes some excellent points as to how things have changed since our generation was first exposed to stereo systems back in the 60/70/80s. Timrhu's comments basically endorse my original statement. They like vinyl 'cause its cool. Nothing wrong with that, but I can't extrapolate this trend into the next generation's burgeoning interest in all things audiophile. As usual, the 1/10 of 1% of them will move into the twisted and demented ranks of "soundstage" grail chasers like us.