What is the actual percentage of people exclusively listening to vinyl vs digital?

The room acoustical bad controls of most users reinforce the choice of vinyl because vinyl S.Q. format resist more to a non optimal acoustical room settings...Digital to shine ASK for optimal acoustical controls more than vinyl, because of the technical aspect and measured potential performance of this format...

Please allow me to rephrase for you Mahgister, because what you wrote is potentially import (even though this thread didn't ask what people like).


The are unique properties in what we could call the signal processing of vinyl, whether that is channel cross talk, increasing distortion at frequency extremes, added noise, etc.  Some of those, like crosstalk, could be conducive, in poor acoustic environments (most audiophiles rooms) to higher satisfaction. Similarly, the distortion and background noise can give a sense of space, or even realism that some may find lacking in digital.  What are perceived flaws, can be an advantage, both overall, and for particular listeners.

I listen exclusively to analog, Vinyl or R2R only. I turn 75 later this year and although I dabbled a bit in digital when it first arrived I never left my analog world. Some of this might be due to the fact I deal with 1400 computers, 2000 Chromebooks and 5 servers all day long and when I get home a nice single malt and some analog is the way I go!

LOL :) Right on! 

Hey @millercarbon - you're wrong. In my home, I have only one source plugged in. Turntable. Car & garage -  CD. Unplugged the Nakamichi CD player about 15 years ago when vinyl started back up again. Never tried SACDs, but I've heard they are quite good. Also heard streaming and HiRez DLS compress files and don't sound as good as SACD, but I've never heard either on my stereo. I think it is now tougher to get titles on SACD than vinyl.

+1 to Fagen-Morph the Cat @mwinkc - been looking for that on vinyl for less than $200 used. Forget about new. 2 fantastic songs and I hate to say, in all of his or the Dan's catalogue 2 of the only 3 songs I would ever skip over (other was WB's tune on Everything Must Go which is also not available on vinyl) - RIP Walter. I think Donald has had licensing issues and complains about constantly getting ripped off. I'm just glad I snagged one of the last copies of Sunken Condos. Regular pressing on undyed vinyl that sounds phenomenal. Plus, it's on 2 records (just 3 sides) so it doesn't go close to the very inner part of the record. They really need to reissue/master Royal Scam and Pretzel Logic and press Tow Against Nature, Kamakiriad and Everything Must Go. They'd probably sell out in an hour. 

I would guess if your OP asks about all people, the number is <5% if they have an indoor stereo setup for anything other than background music being piped in. For self described audiophiles it's probably higher, maybe 15-20%.