Would vinyl even be invented today?


Records, cartridges and tonearms seem like such an unlikely method to play music--a bit of Rube Goldberg. Would anyone even dream of this today? It's like the typewriter keyboard--the version we have may not be the best, but it stays due to the path dependence effect. If vinyl evolved from some crude wax cylinder to a piece of rock careening off walls of vinyl, hasn't it reached the limits of the approach? Not trying to be critical--just trying to get my head around it.
128x128jafreeman
What about flannel shirts and irony?...I had no idea how useful the hipsters are.
So Jack White's Lazaretto set the record for sales of vinyl for 1 week at 40,000. Biggest one week sales of a LP ever. I wonder what the demographics on that album looked like?

If it is anything like the people that go to Jack White concerts, it is not 50 year old audiophiles.

more hipster irony explained
Lazaretto is a DR10 per the dynamic compression rating. That is not bad for a rock album, I wish it were more like a DR12 to add a little to the subtlety but that won't happen for awhile I suppose. Louder i better, right?

It is a good album. It is also good to have a woman in Detroit, LA and Nashville, just like Jack.... ;)