Who listens only to vinyl?



WHY, and what turntable set-up are you choosing to live with?
(This is NOT a vinyl versus digital thread, it's a lifestyle thread!)

Recently, I'm heading in this direction, mostly I think because I have never invested enough attention and money to bring up digital listening into the pleasure zone. I also like messing around with record cleaning and arms and cartridges, and worrying whether my TT belt needs replacing. And the sound of course!

If you are one of these vinyl-only people, how did you get there, and how do you feel about living with restricted access to a lot of newer recordings, both classical and other genres? Is it an issue for you?

[Pro-ject 2 Xperience with Shure v15 type IV-JICO SAS stylus]
sumaato
Mostly analog here. LPs and tuner, I have great classical and jazz stations here in Seattle. Only CDs once and a while.
95% vinyl for the past dozen years or so. You can check my system link for gear, but you'll see that it's modest by comparison with a lot of folks on this site. LP records just sound better and less fatiguing to me, and that's why I listen to them. Perfectly willing to listen to new material as mp3 or CDs or whatever, but as always the best stuff stands the test of time. And with a few thousand LPs, carefully selected, I've got on hand more than enough great material that falls into the category of fantastic music. Lots of superb new material on vinyl, by the way, and I pay attention to that stuff.

Wouldn't go so far as the mighty Syntax (maybe because I'm not [yet] spinning records with a system that compares to his incredible analog rig), but for me, like a bunch of others, the priority is not listening to a bunch of new stuff just to listen to new stuff, but to listen to excellent music via recordings that sound like actual music. LP records played on a decent system is a great way to accomplish this. IMHO, of course.
In the last year I listened exclusively to vinyl for 6 months until a friend, who was interested in buying some Martin Logan 'Stats asked if he could audition my setup. Being a digital only listener I spun a few CDs for the demo then afterwards went back to listening to LPs.
What does this tell us about the relative merits? Merely that I prefer analogue.

Some of the most profound words I've heard on the subject came from a magazine's interview of a 17 yr old(!) who'd been bitten by the bug who said, "With digital you can listen to music...but with analogue you EXPERIENCE the music." Well said that lad.
This doesn't mean that CD/Digital recordings cannot induce emotion or provide a decent listening experience, they can, but nothing brings those classics to life in the same way as a good LP - especially those which are analogue produced throughout the entire recording chain.

There is a practicality issue regarding availability of new releases, so I believe a degree of compromise is required. Not everyone can live entirely without Digital so the question of whether one should TRY to do so is debatable.
(If one was happy to buy only from S/H record shops then there is more than enough music to last a lifetime, so it can be done but if you are following new artists then you may prefer to have some digital replay capability?)
Digital is not completely offensive to the ear. You can live with it but you may not want to all the time...?
I believe the mind compensates according to the situation. I'll explain.

I took digital out of my home system because I like vinyl so much better there. However, digital is perfectly acceptable in my car, even low bitrate homemade CDs burned from mp3 files. I wouldn't dare play that stuff on my home system. It's the place that makes it okay, or not.

Then, there is the visual component of YouTube and other online sites, not to mention the rarity of some performances to be found there. An example would be Vanessa Mae's "Storm" performance. It isn't on vinyl, but if it was, it wouldn't hold my attention through to the end. It is on CD...yawn. Inspite of all that, the YouTube video always captivates me. My mind compensates for the sound because it is busy with the visuals.

Short answer? It depends.
I've had a CD payer hooked up to my main cd less for than 3% of the time in the past 5 years. Haven't had any digital hookup for several months now. So that's pretty close to exclusive analog. Also have a R2R deck I'd have used a lot more if a damn channel hadn't gone intermittent - it sounded phenomenal while it worked.

Was 28 years old when I first "discovered" vinyl in my 2ch system, and became immediately infuriated from having been lied to about digital's "perfect quality" for so long. That had a reactive effect, and thus an analog snob was born.

I DO kinda fondly remember my Meridian G08 purchased in 2004, but only because it steps out beyond the unlistenable hash of most digital players & DACs below that price point. That it was pitched to me as an "analog-like" CD player was a damn lie, and the $4.5K retail is way too much compared to what you'd get for that investment in vinyl playback. Though I'd gladly pick one up (or the 588) if they could be had for low-$1K used - then I'd be covered for those FEW albums I can't get on LP.

There is more good music on LP alone to last me a couple lifetimes, so I can't complain about being limited by exclusive vinyl playback - it renders the BEST sound quality for the MAJORITY of the available recordings of good music that's out there.