Oh what the heck...
I love the last couple of dozen of posts that finally explained, once and for all, the vinyl renaissance. It is, indeed, because of how we learn the symbolic communication system. Yes.
I remember once, I wrote something about how vinyl-heads try to circumvent all good counter-arguments for records by developing some idiotic steam-punk BS with 2 meter tone-arms and machined TT stand weighing a ton and selling for 5 digit prices (in US dollars) and silly elaborate suspension contraptions (none of which are needed in a 500$ Denon CD Player), and immediately someone jumped to yell "strawman, strawman!!". But, learning the language... Yeah, fine. No problem there.
I have no idea what that meant.
But I suspect it's a strawman.
It does even worse job explaining enjoying records since you don't read of of a record. It gets turned into a sound both when it comes to CDs and records and reaches your ear through the same medium - a sound wave propagated via air. And since you can rip the entire audible content of a record onto a CD and dupe EVERY single one of vinyl-heads, much to the glory of the "MoFi case", it's certainly not the medium nor the method of recording sound.
That doesn't follow actually.
The fact that one can digitally reproduce the sound of vinyl doesn't mean that the two mediums don't tend to sound different in regular use. Vinyl does tend to sound different, and so in principle one could prefer that medium, without claims that it's technically superior, or that it can't be reproduced digitally.
There is nothing really mysterious about records. You have preference,
Yup. But a lot is packed in to why people may prefer vinyl. Much of it documented in this thread that go beyond mere nostalgia.
nostalgia and ego-stroking.
Ego stroking?
Like: selecting what you believe to be the superior audio medium based on pure motives, and then ascribing trivializing or disparaging motivations to those who have selected the "lesser" medium, so as to feel superior in your own reasoning and motivations?
That kind of ego stroking?
Renaissance is a fad that'll whither away. A bit slower than others perhaps,
I love it. Yes, a bit slower than actual "fads." LPs have been around in essentially this form for about 74 years! How many technologies have stuck it out that long without disappearing? Then we have 17 years of climbing LP sales, with a big jump this year, and projected to climb even higher in sales in coming years.
DVDs had about 9 years of growth to peak, and then were well down at 17 years later. Even CD sales started to decline by their 17 year mark. I guess every technology that doesn't last forever is a "fad."
If we want to talk about rationalizing, someone not in to records trying to pass LPs off as a "fad" is about as pop-psyche rationalization as you get.
There's a huge portion of people who are now disappointed in their purchase and the decision to go vinyl.
Can you show where you are pulling that data out from?
I keep in touch with the vinyl phenomenon, and peruse many vinyl forums, including those with many newbies, and I'm seeing nothing like what you are claiming there.
Even anecdotally, a friend of mine just inherited a super cheap turntable (like $100 or so) from a relative, and his family is having a fun time playing records. I noticed a bit of sonic sonic degradation relative to their streaming source, but they didn't and were quite happy, not really expecting any sonic revelations to begin with.
There are very few I've seen who are truly disappointed with the sound of vinyl. Many newbies express great satisfaction with the sound, others don't even expect it to sound as good as digital and the artifacts are part of what they like, and there's a large range of reactions but mostly positive overall to getting in to records.
