Does vinyl have a sound?

I agree vinyl has a sound (coloration). If you ever have the opportunity listen to a master tape and compare it to vinyl. Also, vinyl goes through its equalization process (RIAA) to reduce noise which adds to the coloration.

And vinyl does not have nearly the dynamic range and frequency response of even the cheapest digital playback devices - not even close. Digital has a much quieter background and can reproduce the transients much more fully than can vinyl.

-RW-

Funny, it's rarely described in this way, but I too used to have a sensation of vinyl as having a "plastic" coloration. It disappeared through improvements to TT and tonearm.

I think a better question would be 'does analogue have a sound.' My answer would be yes. Skipping over some of the comments made on vinyl, and its limits as a media for carrying sound, I have many analogue reel to reel, two track tapes, and many versions of the source music and the other media, cd/sacd etec. Analogue does have a natural sound, not to be found on the other media.

I think you are setting yourself up for the inevitable answer "vinyl sounds like pop - click - tick - pop - crackle" :-)

But that aside, I have had most people say that they can;t understand how my vinyl can sound so clean. No surface noise and few minor tic's. Clean records and a good stylus play a major role in resolving those issues.

But that aside, vinyl just souonds more musical than digital to my ears. How to quantify that? I really can't, but I know what I hear. It's just more fluid. Colored? Maybe. More musically enjoyable? Usually.