What is the obsession with vinyl?

no downvote here as it's a legit question. You nailed it for me...nostalgia. It would be hard for me to act like a pretentious album purist when I ditched them in the 80s for cassettes and CDs, although I have, for nostalgia reasons, purchased about 200 albums in the last few years. I like listening to them in the form artists intended back in the day, but I HATE having to get up and turn them over every 23 minutes.

Last week, I listened to the White Album and Abbey Road back to back...it was glorious.

If the masters were analog like with older recordings, it's just a warmer, fuller sound than most compressed digital streams and that matters to many music lovers. Of course, I don't know how that applies to vinyl that is made from digital masters.

Also, physical media. Some people don't enjoy this non-physical, digital world where the right to listen something increasingly involves a subscription and/or being perpetually bombarded with ads. They like sitting down and listening to a full album. I'm one of them.

All fair answers…I’m 50 so I grew up with vinyl and 8 tracks…but when I graduated to the cassette there was no going back. I stay on the go so my music has to be portable.

I'm young enough that there isn't a "nostalgia" element for me. I think the reasons I've built a collection (mid 400s currently) is in part because it's something fun to have a collection of as well as the ritual of it - picking out an album, dropping the needle, hearing the crackle, and most importantly, listening to the entire album. I also really enjoy the tone vinyl provides to music that you don't always get with digital - although I'm hardly a purist in that regard.

I collected CDs well into college, built up a big digital library as well. Then everything went to streaming, and I missed collecting physical media, so I started a record collection.

There’s a different sound with vinyl that indeed gets at the nostalgia.

It’s not always “better,” to be sure, but playing my original Police albums, which I’ve kept pretty pristine since the 80s offers a different experience than steaming the same music or CD.

I’ve got a mobility sound labs copy of In My Tribe, with one super annoying little scratch at the end, but I can definitely tell the clarity is different than radio or CD.

There is also the feeling of “owning” real music and not digitized as mentioned.

I would say that record collecting is another example of the infantilization of adults in our society just like dog momming and marvel movieing y’all just don’t want to admit it

I mean whatever keeps millenials from realizing that we are lab rats in a giant prison and nothing will give us true purpose

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The sound is superior

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It’s not. Your preamp, amp, and speakers are more important to your sound than anything. Just the medium itself, I feel CDs have the best sound.

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I feel CDs have the best sound.

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You aren't understanding the difference between digital "waves" and analog ones. See my explanation below

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It’s not

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But it is




Explanation: Digital audio is tinny due to the loss from the inherent nature of digital "waves" being square. Analog is a pure wave that suffers none of this loss. When listening to vinyl compared to digital (CD in this case), vinyl provides a full sound that encompasses all spectrums of high, low and everything in between. Digital loses many of the mid waves, which is why it has that tinny sound in comparison.

8 track audio is better than vinyl, because it has the full sound spectrum captured in recording and production without the scratchiness that the needs creates when capturing the "cuts" on vinyl.

The problem with vinyl, as pointed out above, is that it's super hipster right now. It's goofy how many people are buying it just to be part of the in crowd.


Do superior amps, speakers and such make a difference in sound? Of course, but they also enhance digital sound as well. None of that takes away from the pureness and fullness of sound that analog delivers though, and vinyl will always sound better than digital on any sound system.

Now I would not invest in vinyl without having a quality sound system to deliver its production, because it really becomes a waste of money IMO. I personally have a decent setup, so it's worth it to me.

And yes, there is also the feel and process that is satisfying as well in setting the record, placing the needle, waiting for the song to start as the dull sounds of the scratch are heard from the speakers and then having to flip it when the "thump thump... thump thump" play out. It's not for everyone though, and that's ok.


But saying CD is better or even equal sound quality to vinyl is flat out wrong.