That is totally understandable but a little sad. The question is totally valid. Many people, for various reason, will be wondering and genuinely be curious on what is triggering the vinyl renaissance. It is sad that this thread is polluted, again and again and again by the same 2 members who admittedly do not even understand the appeal to vinyl in the first place. Maybe the moderator can help here?
One take away I have from this thread, among many, is that all cannot be explained by just an objective perspective. What we enjoy is not dictated by reason only. Not just listening to music, almost anything we enjoy, food, wine, arts, motorcycle, sports car, etc......
Music can be enjoyed and is enjoyed in many different ways, from streaming from a smarts phone to a Bluetooth speakers or earbuds, to attending to a musical program in a multi million dedicated venue played by a full philamormic professional orchestra, with everything in between. Vinyl, which at one point in time, not such along time ago, was the preferred way to listen at home has been replaced by more practical, less expensive and better performing options, yet, in the last decade, it is experiencing a revival. That tells a lot about what motivate us (as humans) to do what we do. Totally justifying this thread which is not just about vinyl. It also can shed lights on the many ways our brain and ears interpret the musical message, that, as the science as clearly demonstrated, is much more subjective than objective.
We can objectively measure performance aspect, but at the end of the day, when comparing, item a to item b, we need to do it in away that prevent our brain to subjectively cloud our perception to have a scientifically valid answer. When knowingly listening to a vinyl records, humans, and I am one of them, find the experience quite appealing, and many have decided, for many reasons, to keep spending time, or restart spending time spinning plastic slices dragging a rock on them to experience musical pleasure. If this is not worth exploring in a thread, then I don’t know what is.
Look. Newman listens to vinyl. I posted not that far up here that a case for vinyl has been made here. You might want to check it. Newman liked the post, at least implying approval for some of it.
What is going on here is, entirely, that some other posters wish to espouse a case where no post in 152 pages, including many posts that say that the sound quality of vinyl is superior to the poster, are allowed to be read as a statement that the sound quality of vinyl is superior.
None.
Not even the one on the first page that states, in the first two words, that sound quality is a reason for the vinyl renaissance.
Somehow, on this forum, and this forum alone, no matter what is said in every other place in the English speaking audiophile universe, nobody has arrived who believes that the vinyl renaissance is due primarily, mainly, or even partly, because of the claim that the sound of vinyl is superior, even if we allow ourselves to read between the lines in the most generous manner.
Meanwhile, somebody has raised the bar for that even higher, requiring somebody to explicitly claim that "vinyl is the only true way" and have to try to convince us all, at this forum of all places, of its absolute superiority, for us to be in a position to accept that sound quality has anything to do with the expression of the vinyl renaissance here: and it seems from some of the argument, therefore it is not allowed to suggest even that sound quality is a reason for it anywhere else.
It also appears that people are taking the objective argument about sound quality as meant to imply that two people here, one of whom I will remind you listens himself to vinyl, are saying that others should not listen to vinyl purely because it sounds inferior. And if Sal feels the need to keep repeating the sound quality case against vinyl, at least he is being blunt about it in a sea of confusing posts (and I'm being generous to some of you by using that term.
And, having said that, I would also suggest that this is Audio Science Review: not HiFi Science review, not SOTA Science review, not Digital Only Science Review, and not a chamber where sophistry and debating tactics on either side should take the place of proper debate.
@amirm @BDWoody @AdamG247, I don't really have a reason to report this thread, but it has gone downhill fast. I'd suggest that anybody who reads it will get a decent idea of why the vinyl renaissance has occurred, and from here and other publications and forums they can form their own opinion with at least some clear information from ASR members in the mess.
May I request that this thread be closed - there are a number of other threads on turntables as art, record quality and mastering, and technical matters around vinyl playback where people can continue the more interesting aspects of this discussion, without the gainsaying.
I was watching a video about how a jukebox works the other day for example, and all the relays and motors and switches and levers and how they were combined to create an algorithm that is executed based on user input were super impressive - although you probably can program all that and a lot more into a $5 PIC in a day or two. But when a microcontroller does it, its not that impressive somehow.
