Does Age Matter?

Last month I assembled analog system for my 24 y.o. nephew and his beautiful wife. Micro Seiki DD turntable, MA-505 tonearm, Empire MI cartridge... They want vinyl, amazing! 

The aging of my stylus certainly matters!!

I am 71 and probably have about 1,500 records and I have a decent vinyl rig but to be candid I prefer digital. Sound quality isn’t the issue but convenience is. I listen mostly to contemporary music and except for the first time I play an album I will seldom listen to it again in its entirety. I mark my favorite songs and put them into rotation until I get tired of them. I rarely find an album that I will play from beginning to end. I enjoy finding new music so between radio stations and Tidal I get some very good leads. However if I find something I really like such as the most recent Blitzen Trapper I will purchase a vinyl copy.

Sound is sound, no matter the age. This explains why every single time I have compared, everyone always prefers the record. Every single time. And no it does not have to be five times as expensive, I have gotten the same result comparing a 30 year old beat up Technics to new five times as expensive CD. People- I’m talking normal people here not the near basket case neurotics known as audiophiles- normal people all prefer records.

But that’s not quite right. Its really, really, REALLY important to drill down to what exactly it is we are talking about here. What this REALLY shows is, given the time to sit and do nothing but enjoy music, with someone else doing all the work, THEN for those few minutes everyone prefers records.

And only then. Because even a hard core spinner like me is not going through the hassle of turning a record over every 15 minutes just to have some music in the background while exercising or puttering around the house. For that even I prefer digi....di.... d,... dang thing sticks in my throat. The other one.

Is a pig/s butt pork ?