Audiophiles like Ronald Phillips New York have strong opinions when it comes to the medium that best delivers music. Phillips and others believe that vinyl records are superior to digital and streaming music technology. Here are seven reasons why audiophiles prefer vinyl records.
1) Sound Quality
Vinyl is the best medium for sound quality because it allows the discerning of subtle details in the music that is more difficult to distinguish with digital formats. In addition, analog recordings, like those of vinyl records, allow for very quiet recording surfaces and more of the original source material to come through than their digital counterparts.
2) The Experience of Listening to a Vinyl Record
Listening to music on vinyl records is an experience that audiophiles find relaxing and fulfilling. The ritual of cleaning the record with a carbon fiber brush, gently placing it onto the turntable platter, making sure the tonearm is level and not touching the grooves, dropping the needle on the record, and listening to music are all part of the experience.
3) Physical Appearance
Vinyl records can be beautiful objects that inspire admiration in their artistry and design. Vinyl collectors prize the artwork on vinyl records as much as they do the sound quality. This is especially true if they have grown up with vinyl records through generations of technology use.
4) Protection
Because vinyl records are made of more durable material than optical discs or paper, it makes sense that they would be better protectors for cherished music. In addition, while vinyl records may get scratched, audiophiles know how to carefully take care of them and often repair scratches on a record.
5) The Desire for a Physical Copy of Music
Vinyl collectors realize that owning a physical copy of music brings more security for the future. Computer hard drives die, discs get lost, and cloud storage is vulnerable to unscrupulous hackers. In short, there are many ways that digital music can be compromised or rendered inaccessible in the future. Vinyl records cannot be hacked remotely from another computer or device because they aren’t connected to any network except when played with an audio system attached to a turntable or receiver. With CDs and DVDs, you have the same issues as digital downloads.
6) The Availability of Vinyl Records
Vinyl records are still being manufactured and sold in record stores around the world. It is not difficult to find a record store, although they may be harder to find than they were in the past. Record companies are also releasing vinyl editions of current music albums, so there is still an active market for vinyl records
7) The Desire for a More Natural Sound
Vinyl records, while not perfect, do offer a more natural sound than digital sources. However, an interesting study has shown that people generally find digital music to be less natural and sometimes even unpleasant. This study has been the subject of many spirited debates, and there is no conclusion that digital music is artistically inferior to vinyl records or that it “sounds bad.
