I do listen to vinyl for the SQ...........mostly but it is also because I have a much larger collection of vinyl than I have in CD's. I have around 3,000 records and maybe 300 CD's. I was not impressed by early CD's other than the dead quiet background. My main reason to play them is to enjoy the music. I do appreciate a high quality recording and I have a lot more of them in vinyl than I do in CD format.
People always talk about how expensive it is to get set up in vinyl playback. Well, it can be but it doesn't have to be. A fairly modest system can be utilized to at least "appreciate" vinyl playback. Yes, it can get better as one gets into higher end gear but it's not a guarantee of greatness.
The same can be said about CD playback. Early on, I listened to cheap Sony and Fisher CD players and hated them. I got into Denon CD players close to 25 years ago and they were much better. I currently listen to a Denon DVD player which is able to read HDCD format. It's old and beat up, missing a stop button but I bought it out of Canada for $40 plus shipping. It sounds as good as my Denon 20 bit CD player and has the advantage of reading HDCD. I wish I'd known about these years ago but just stumbled onto them recently. They sound really good and I'd put them very close to and maybe in some cases an equal to vinyl. Never though I'd say that in my life.
I"ve made some changes in my system over the last couple years, adding a tube preamp. I have found CD's to be much more listenable in this way as opposed to the all SS styems that I always had in the past. I had tubes in my phono pre for over 20 years but not in my CD playback. Likely, at least some of my preference for vinyl over the years but I know that's not all of it.
I don't stream at all so I can't speak to that other than if you guys who do, have a choice of what recordings of a given piece that you want to hear, I'd sure look for the HDCD, SACD or vinyl versions if you have the option. Only streaming that I do is from youtube played back via my desktop computer. Less than ideal but I do manage to figure out if I'd like to hear something or not and whether to buy a copy. CD's are selling dirt cheap these days.
Reasons to prefer vinyl are exactly what @yogiboy posted. I remember playing vinyl for people who hadn't heard a record in 20 years and the result was usually utter disbelief in what they were hearing and the main comment being "it's like being there". If I'm not mistaken, that's the whole idea, isn't it?
