I'm a member of a couple of reddit audiophile threads where people post pictures of their rigs and most of the time they include turntables and every time I see one my mind is blown because I outgrew vinyl only a few years after buying my first CD player in the '80's. Back then I had a tape deck, a turntable and a CD player but once I heard digital I knew they was no going back yet people en mass are and I find it baffling given all the benefits of youtube. The first and most obvious benefit is, it's free. Secondly, youtube has an almost endless catalog of music, with the original music video, the karaoke versions of songs, live versions and videos that include the lyrics. Thirdly, the convenience of simply clicking my mouse a few times and opening up a world of music is pretty alluring. I always wondered about the sound quality though so I bought a CD a few years ago to compare youtube to CD and couldn't hear any difference. LP's on the other hand can only be played one at a time, require time, money and effort to obtain and play and also require money and effort to maintain and as your collection of LP's grows it obviously becomes more expensive and takes up space-something youtube doesn't yet most reddit audiophiles are flocking to them
Does the vinyl renaissance make sense to you because it sure doesn't to me
1) Clicks, pops and ‘vinyl roar’ from the plastic groove. Especially good fun when you know that the click/pop is about to happen.
2) The quality of information per second worsens as the stylus traverses the spiral groove. This makes vinyl the worst choice for what is loosely called ‘classical’ music, as climactic crescendoes are usually found next to the dead wax. There’s a reason that classic rock albums often have a ballad at the end of a side.
3) Almost no LPs have a spindle hole that is actually central. I cannot listen to piano music on vinyl, as I am sensitive to pitch wobble. Speed stability is dodgy even on super-expensive turntables.
4) Deep, powerful bass has to be summed to mono on LPs, lest the stylus jump out of the groove.
5) Both the record and your stylus wear with every play. Some stylus tips are significantly degraded after 500 hours.
6) Like a stopped clock, cartridge alignment can only be correct twice across the record surface. Linear-tracking arms have their own problems.
7) Pickup cartridges require huge amplification, resulting in noise.
8) Almost all LPs are warped to some degree (making a mockery of audiophools who like to adjust vertical tracking angle).
9) Terrible channel separation.
10) All pick-up cartridges have massively rising distortion above 10KHZ.
11) Many converts to vinyl are buying albums created from digital files, delivering the worst of both worlds. And at £20-30…
12) The only plus point is that 12” album art is big enough to be effective.