Question for the older folks- did you ditch vinyl when cd arrived?

I did not. I bought both at that time depending on the situation. A used album in good condition was cheap. A lot of people were getting rid of their vinyl. So I took advantage of that.

Now when cd box sets came out I purchased numerous ones. Old reissues of groups that you couldn't find anymore were great purchases as well. It was an interesting time. Keeping my vinyl was simple. It was my tie to my past and all the great music I had already collected. The artwork and info were  head and shoulders above cds. 

I was actually employed as the Audio Guy in the wood paneled Audio room at a Newmark & Lewis store. Demoing the very first CD players for an amazed audio public. At one point I started to believe my own bullshit and I hopped in with them.

I remember we had something like three component units all to meet some price points. I’m also remembering the small portable detachable speaker stereo units.. Also created to get the new technology in the house at a price point. It was definitely a step up from a boombox. It was the boomboxes slicker and more sophisticated younger brother!

The only one I’m kind of remembering was a Sony player and I was piping it through a then current Sansui integrated ( I remember liking the Sansui equipment because it was very handsome and modern looking) into either some Cerwin Vegas we had or the world famous Bose 901s. Great looking and I sold a lot of them, but they sucked. That's another story for another post.

I’m sure I wasn’t the only guy in a stereo store doing the ’torture the compact disc’ schtick. ’Can you do THIS with vinyl??’ as you’d fling it carelessly like a frisbee..

I’d be a liar if I didn’t say I was kind of smitten with the sound of a couple of CDs. They all didn’t sound good by any stretch. There was a Doors disc. Alive She Cried. It was very dynamic and I’d use it on just about every demo but that wouldn’t be the one I was fking up for the demo.

Unloaded all my records and went to full ceedee with my first player in 1986 while in college.  Ended up buying a cheap Music Hall turnkey turntable setup in 1999 to try some records again and was re-hooked.  Now I'm back to listening ~85%/15% records/digital (still buy ceedees (to rip) on occassion, and only stream Qobuz to check stuff out).

The early 90s were a great time to buy used records!

I kept my vinyl but quit playing it to avoid wear and the creation of additional pops.  It was too much work to clean.  I started buying CDs and recording my vinyl, first to cassette tape (Nakamichi, DBX noise reduction, and metal tape), and later to WAV files.  I've been buying CDs since the 80s, though I still have quite a bit of music on vinyl that can't be purchased on CDs.