Can you imagine a world without vinyl?

Hey, I'm actually one of those who is capable of enjoying a moderate degree of surface noise on old records of certain musical genres, but not so much with LP's, more so 45's and 78's. And not just noise from uncleanable dust'n'dirt and years of playing on a cheap old turntables/cartridges either, but from a patina of countless light scratches as well. The robustness of the physically larger grooves of the single formats, combined with the higher velocity and therefore pitch of the groove/surface noise generated by higher rpm playback, can allow for a very evocative atmospheric sound to be created in the ears of some devotees of older genres and records. It's not unlike the desirability of leaving the timeworn finish untouched on a piece of antique wooden furniture.

Albertporter...I am very sad to hear about Dave's death. We did have a most enjoyable conversation by E-Mail, and exchanged some CD's that we thought represented exceptional performances.

About vinyl...PLEASE don't consider any comment I might make as an "attack". There are few enough of us audiophiles that we don't need a circular firing squad. Debate, yes, but an argument, no.

Now I will go play the Joshua Bell/ Ashkenazy performance of the Tchaikovsky violin concerto which Dave sent to me, and raise a glass to his memory.

I am a bit bewildered by all these Vinyl eulogies...rather nostalgic IMHO.

If Vinyl was so much better than other mediums then can someone expain why it has never been used as the reference storage medium for the audio industry. I mean why did the recording industry use analog master tapes and now digital masters if Vinyl was the ultimate?

Even before digital existed, I thought most people accepted that Vinyl was an imperfect replica of original studio analog tapes, especially the LP's which undergo a form of compression to achive their long play....

Come on everyone, lets not make Vinyl out to be something it is not. I'll be first to admit that great Vinyl sounds absolutely awesome...nirvanna perhaps, but it ain't the only one that "sweeps away the world and delivers the goods."

Sure some people prefer the sound of Vinyl and I respect that, but that there can only be one is the corny stuff of Highlander fantasy movie.

Albert, well put, with vinyl I get the goose bumps, the chills going up my spine when the emotion is felt. For instance, Herb Ellis, Joe Pass, Ray Brown and Jake Hanna playing Seven Come Elleven at Concord just burns with fire and passion. I have both CD and an LP. It's the LP that sets off the neurons and chemicals in my body to hyper sensitivity. I can hear and feel the guitar work, rythm and suspense, excitement in the crowd as they anticipate the musics next movement. I'm not much of a classical music fan, but the same thing happens to me when i hear Mozarts Eine Kliene Nacht Music by the Budapest Quartet. The beautiful sweet and quiet, then soaring clarinet, playing in front of the mourning strings, can bring tears to my eyes which a CD cannot do. After hearing this and a few other LPs, I was inspired to sit in on a few chamber music concerts. I loved it so much.
Jean is correct as well. It does not take a huge investment in time nor money, to get HUGE returns in musicality. What it takes is the right approach. One can have wonderful music, for under 1k. I say this because I just gave a turntablle to a friend who has crappy Sony electronics, old Pioneer speakers and he is in love with his 500+ 1950, 1960,1970s vinyl collection all over again because he had never heard the dynamcs and rythm and bloom which were in the grooves before! Lucky for him, most of his LPs are mint- Ellington, Basie, Professor Long Hair, Tatum, Jazz and rock, etc.
His system proves to me that it is really the source that matters. If you have a crappy turntable, it doesn't matter how good the electroncs and speakers and cables are. The source which plays the medium has to be good. Jean has a great recipe for a damn good analog source which has been proven to me and it is not super expensive.
Again, the emotion and musicality are what matters most to us audio nuts. Even with some clicks and noises, I get it most from LPs than with CDs. In large part, CDs were a marketing coup- convenience, noiseless, etc. But what they don't tell us is that it really lacks SOUL.
At our quarterly audio listening sessions, 4-6 audio fools get together and 95% of our precious time is spent spinning vinyl Hardly anyone attempts to play their Wadia, Meridian, Naim CD players. We eagerly pull out LPs because that's where the magic is. The music sound wave.
The question posted is can we live in a world without vinyl? maybe you can.

Shadorne notes:

If Vinyl was so much better than other mediums then can someone expain why it has never been used as the reference storage medium for the audio industry. I mean why did the recording industry use analog master tapes and now digital masters if Vinyl was the ultimate

Tsk, tsk, Shadorne. You know why (among other reasons):
a) Tape is 1st generation; vinyl comes after.
b) Tapes offer much more storage space for music
c) Vinyl is hardly "ultimate" -- it's just relatively better. For example, live FM broadcast (good quality) sounds exceptional. For that matter, tapes sound excellent (but can you find pre-recorded R-R tapes?)

Nostalgic?
Hardly so in very many cases: many audiophiles AND music lovers used to be annoyed at the vagaries of vinyl playback in the old times -- myself included. And many, I'm sure, looked forward to the "new" medium... whether they admit it or not.

Looks apart (many TTs look beautiful fm an "engineering aesthetics" point of view), and hobbyism apart,
-- you need TWO pick up cartridge life cycles to match the life cycle of ONE laser pick-up if you;re lucky;
-- you have to set up the TT (but that's not rocket science)
-- you need a good tone-arm: this means inexpensive in the beginning or VERY expensive thereafter (OK, you can buy vintage)
-- Worse of all -- as Raul noted recently: you need a phono equaliser. These components are probably the most miserable sounding devices to hit the dealer shelves...

It may be masochism or something else, or both. But, really, believe me, this ain't no nostalgia:)