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Vinylistas and Tubers - One and the same?

I am curious to see if I am in the small minority of Goners who listen exclusively to vinyl (or who have some digital source they use only when the can't get the album on a vinyl new release or reasonably priced in NM condition) and use solid state amps and phono stage. My reasons are I've been building my vinyl collection for the past 40+years, interrupted by the 10-15 years when vinyl wasn't being produced or distributed much in the US from the late 80's until the early 2000's and think it sounds better than CDs - never tried hi rez DLs or streaming, and I don't want to deal with the cost, inconvenience, unreliability (compared to SS) or heat of tubes. 

Please let me know if this describes you and your reasons.

Also, interested in the logic of those who use tubes and listen to digital.

Don't really need to hear from the digital SSers or the vinyl tubers unless your reasons are not obvious (either wanting no noise and maximum selection or like the full sound of vinyl with mid range emphasis and tube mellowness and are willing to pay the price).


sokogear
oregonpapa's avatar
oregonpapa
4,867 posts
 
I love my vinyl and tubes. There is such a sense of realism about the combination. With that said, my digital system is a Grover Huffman modified Pioneer Elite DVD player that has me shaking my head in disbelief that red-book CDs can sound so analog-like. Who knew??

Frank
noromance's avatar
noromance
9,404 posts
 
Cake and eat it. I've two systems. One is dedicated to vinyl only. Two arms. All tubes. ESLs. That gets 90% of the attention. Love vinyl and the hobby of collecting records.
The other rig is vinyl and digital—CD/DVD/Tidal. All tube amplification.
facten
2,723 posts
 
" If your highest priority is to hear .... some particular music not on vinyl .... then stream SS and keep telling yourself it sounds good enough. For in that case it probably does."

I don’t stream, not going to give up what I enjoy listening to simply to switch to vinyl, don’t keep telling myself it sounds good enough , it does sound good . I’ll keep my tube and digital gear and sit back and enjoy the music that I like listening to versus compromising and listen to just anything simply because it's on vinyl.
elliottbnewcombjr
5,111 posts
 
I used SS while in college when ’transistor’ was the new thing (1968 Fisher 200T Receiver), 

Inherited tubes and efficient speakers in 1973, OMG, hooked on high quality sound, but wifey hated the giant console.

Later a McIntosh SS MC 2250 because I got less efficient speakers and listened at close to live concert levels occasionally. That was during the CD’s are Perfect FOREVER era.

Missed the tube sound and those speakers: new enclosures for the efficient speaker’s innards, back to tubes, never happier.

Re-discovered LPs, joined Audiogon, upped my Vinyl game quite a bit!
knotscott's avatar
knotscott
796 posts
 
At it's best, on my system, I prefer the sound of my TT setup....I think there's a bit more texture, information, and spatial cues, but CD can sound good too and is a lot more convenient.  

My preference for tubes over SS is much stronger than my vinyl preference.  Many of the same SQ benefits, but even more so, at least to my ears on my system.
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