Why do you listen to records?

I listen to them insofar as I have to, in order to digitize them and apply digital audio restoration to them so that there are no more infernal clicks and pops from their previous owners' neglect, lessened hiss, ameliorated inner groove distortion et al. even on high end equipment at audio salons I hear these things that everybody else there seems deaf to. 

I quit vinyl in the early 90s in favor of CDs, and got back into it about 10 years ago. I love both formats. Vinyl sounds different. Sometimes better than CDs, sometimes not. I do like the ritual of playing vinyl and the large artwork. 

In my experience if the digital playback system is very good it will match vinyl, high rez recordings usually sound better than the LP version.

I had a v high end vinyl set up for over 10years, then started on the road of building computer/streamers eventually getting to the point where digital was as good as vinyl, with the exception of some 50s, 60s and 70s jazz recordings.

I sold the vinyl rig and bought a  lesser set up which has proved to be excellent.  

Good analogue jazz recordings can still sound better than the digital equivalent, however I have given up on buying newly recorded vinyl as they (nearly) all come from a digital source. I now have a Grimm MU1 streaming Qobuz and local files, only well recorded/mastered analogue vinyl (eg; blue note remasters) can match or better it.

Digital is so much more convenient. 

Interesting discussion to PhD [University Emeritus Pofessor] with expertise in physics, acoustics, and biological science. I am victim of over 50 years of audiophlia. We have state of art home theater system built on that obsession, and we LOVE Vinyl as well as SACD music. We find most non-SACD discs harsh in comparison to the vinyl. Yes... also love watching the vinyl playing.  

From that perspective: I think yogiboy answers best. 

 

I have about 900 LP's from my college days, and I had a decent TT back then.  I love to handle my LP's, and I flirted with re-exploring the vinyl when I briefly cycled in a tube pre with a phone stage. I found that after streaming and playing digitized music from my server, the nostalgic value of listening to vinyl just didn't come close to my digital rig (although finding some weed in the fold was always nostalgic, LOL!

I have many of my albums digitized on my server, so theoretically that is a bit perfect capture of the "vinyl" sound, although I can't say one way or the other.  One thing that many people don't mention, but I found with my LPs, is the noise from these recordings from the '60's and '70s. Groove noise, snap, crackle and pop, are often present an never on digital.  Plus it's easier to listen to an entire album on digital instead of having to get up every 20 minutes and figure out what to put on next.  And as some have said, letting Roon curate music after the album is over is a big plus for me too.  So while a very expensive vinyl rig might bring out the best in a vinyl recording, I have not found it to be the equal of digital.  Of course, there are crappy vinyl recordings that will not sound good no matter what, and there are crappy digital records that will not sound good, no matter what.  So like everything else in this "hobby," there are always tradeoffs.