Why vinyl?


I understand the thoughts of a lot of you that digital is harsh and bright and has an edge. I know that analog has a warmer fuller sound, otherwise why would so many people put up with the inconvenience of records, cartridges, cleaners, tone-arm adjustments, etc. I used to be there. Of course all I had was a Garrard direct drive turntable. If the idea is to get as close as possible to the original source, why has not open-reel tape made a huge comeback. After all that's how most of the stuff was recorded in the first place. Very few were direct to disk recordings. Why would dragging a stylus through a groove be better than the original? There used to be a company out there called In-Synch that used the original masters and sold cassettes of them, dubbed at 1:1 ratio. I was the happiest person in the world when CD's came out and I could throw out my disk-washer and everything else that went with it, including the surface noise and the TICKS and POPS. Just something I've wondered about.
elmuncy
Thanks Ron. You addressed the importance of quality and how that results in deeper appreciation of the music.

The same motivation that lead me to become an audiophile in the first place.
Ron
Points well made. It really is separating the forest from the trees or the music from the clicks and pops. I would also agree the time has never been better for getting quiet great sound at a reasonable price.
Very good points Ron, in fact I sometimes tend to suspect, that people complaining about those "clicks and pops" don't know how to handle vinyl properly or are even arguing merely from pure hearsay.
With the utmost of respect I'll recount a recent experience.

In dreams "I know that a bottle of Penfolds Grange Hermitage vintage 1972 is a spectacular drop. But I won't drink it because of the sediment at the bottom of the bottle.

I won't eat at restaurants where meals take longer then 2 minutes to prepare because I can go to the drive thru and not even have to get out of my seat.

I won't drive a Porsche 356 Spyder because my 2001 Toyota Camry engine is smoother.

I won't go to live concerts because the noise of coughing and whispering in the audience spoils the performance.

I'll stay at home and play a CD because it won't deliver bass that causes my amplifier to complain, keeps the soundstage flat and shallow so I can't hear the ceiling height of Miles Davis' recording studio, and causes me to keep my listening sessions short and sweet so I can get back to the real world to keep working at generating internal stress.

I'm so looking forward to MP3 becoming the dominant format so that all the artificially produced music I like can sound like it did originally in the synthesizer it came from.

I am led to believe that soon digital devices will offer sensory feedback so we don't have to touch any real people when we want to love.

I just can't understand these vinyl addicts and their addiction to music and pursuit of perfection.

I think I'll just go and play another DVD of some gratuitous mindless violence on my digital home theatre to keep my addiction to adrenaline going."

and then I awoke from the nightmare...........

Garrard is not a vinyl experience.

Try Rockport USA, La Luce Nethelands, Walker USA, Continuum Australia, even the DIY's like Teres should do it. Lyra Helikon or Olympus, Allaerts MC1 and 1B, Koetsu Onyx, etc
Arms airbearings to Schroeders

Compared against CEC TL0, TL1, Burmester 969/970, Dodson DACs you name it in digital , put it head to head and if you have trouble hearing the difference - check your pulse you may be dead!

As for convenience you can't beat CD, I can use it in the car, on my PC, people burn copies so that record companies are losing income (strange it used to cost 6 bucks to make an album that sold for $20 now CDs cost 50cents to make and sell for 20bucks - you do the math! and why it was pushed sooooo hard onto the market before the sonics had been sorted).

No offense but until something comes along that beat vinyl I'll stick with POPS and CRACKS.
Well spoken from there downunder! HEAR-HEAR!
PS: You forgot to add the Goldmund Reference to your list of analog gear which is exceptional. Cheers,
Hello Detlof, good to see you again along these shores. Of course one must mention the Goldmund -- can my trusted 13yrs old S. Yorke TT get a mention too? It held its own against a Burmester 979/980 (what's more, at a Burmester dealer's! OK, so he too is a vinyl man)
POPS and CRACKS ?? I HEAR NOTHING BUT MUSIC FROM MY BLACK AND BIG 12 INCH CD'S.
As many may already know there's a nice web page out there entitled just this - Why Vinyl?

For analog experts, it might only be of peripheral interest - as a non-expert, indeed beginner, I found it helpful and informative.