Does vinyl have a sound?

A lot of information and misinformation in the answers. Let's see if we can sort it out.

First, the misinformation. Yes, all formats have some artifact but artifact of LP is not 'plastic' by any means. It has greater dynamic range of the best digital and tape, although it is rarely expressed (the limit is on the playback side, not the record side BTW). The RIAA curve is not a cause of phase shift. In fact the media has the least phase shift as it has the greatest bandwidth, often extending out past 50KHz.

If your setup is poorly done, you will encounter all sorts of artifacts. A good cartridge is key but it need not be expensive if the arm can make it track correctly. What this means is that the arm is far more important than the cartridge. The platter can affect soundstage; if it is varying its pitch even slightly the arm will jog back and forth over the stylus which will impart a shimmer to the soundstage that tape and CD lack.

The choice of phono preamp can affect how much you hear in the way of ticks and pops; this has nothing to do with bandwidth and everything to do with the stability of the phono section!

If you have a poor setup the cheapest CD player may sound better; if you have good gear with good setup you will find the performance hard to beat with any other media. The truth of this last statement is why you see such variable responses.

Mechans, I was careful how I made my comment. I said

it need not be expensive if the arm can make it track correctly.

What this means is you can get a Grado Gold to beat the best digital out there if the arm gets it to track right. What often amazes me is how well you can do with a stock Technics 1200 with the stock arm, if you are careful about setup and the choice of cartridge. It will beat any cheap digital made.

I don't know about the VPI arm but it just might be that it works really well with your cartridge.

But Mapman is right, the same gear can sound dreadful if poorly set up. I saw a speaker manufacturer at RMAF using a Technics 1200 and his room was the poster for this phenom. The setup was bad- he did nothing about VTA or loading. It sounded very bright and I could not stay in the room.

Mechans, no argument taken!

An arm will track a cartridge well if it and the cartridge together have an effective mass that allows the two to have a low frequency mechanical resonance between about 7-12Hz. If the mechanical resonance falls outside of this range you can have all sorts of mistracking problems.

Additional factors are the 'sticktion' of the arm bearings, any play that the bearings might have, and uncontrolled resonances in the arm tube that might cause the arm to editorialize.

In addition arm bearings can be fragile! This can result in really variable results. But if all these factors come together in a good way then the arm does not have to be particularly expensive and things will work fine. If OTOH something is a little off the results can be dreadful.

Sounds like things are working better for you than bad :)

Have a good holiday!