Unpopular Opinion

Vinyl has better artwork.

Vinyl requires more effort to listen too, forcing the listener to be a part of the listening experience.

Apologies in advance for a long, perhaps boring, old man story. Feel free to skip it if you’d like.

Somehow, I mostly bypassed the vinyl era—not on purpose, just by how timing worked out. My parents and older siblings had vinyl records, which I found fascinating and played whenever I could. We also had a few 8-track tapes, but like many, we quickly realized they were not great and stopped using them.

When I was old enough to buy my own music with my fast-food job earnings, cassette tapes were the go-to choice. I wanted to listen to music on my Sony Walkman or the cassette player in my hand-me-down car, so cassettes made the most sense. My friends and I would drive around, wasting gas but having a blast singing along to our favorite tunes and bonding over our shared love of music.

I ended up with about 25 or 30 cassette tapes. When CDs came out, they were a game-changer. They were superior in almost every way, so I replaced most of my tapes with CDs and expanded my collection to about 300 at its peak. I enjoyed my CDs for years, often playing them when we had friends over for dinner and drinks.

Then came the mp3 revolution. I painstakingly ripped my entire CD collection to mp3 format, which took ages, but I kept the CDs for a while, much to my wife’s annoyance, before donating them to a local charity.

These days, I sometimes find music on YouTube, but I’ve never let go of my personal mp3 library. I have multiple copies on SSDs for safety and occasionally add new tracks, though my taste in music is mostly set. I’m not very interested in new releases, not because they’re bad, but they’re just not to my taste. I might make an exception for a movie or game soundtrack or if a younger friend recommends something.

When vinyl made its big comeback, it seemed bizarre to me. I couldn’t understand the appeal of going backward. But as it persisted, I began to get it. With so much content digital and cloud-stored, it can feel ephemeral. Streaming services can disappear or change, leaving you with nothing. Owning a physical object with your favorite music makes sense; it’s something tangible, something truly yours. Though I stick with my mp3s, I understand the allure of vinyl now.

There’s also something to be said about the quirks and flaws of older technology. The grain of film, the pops of a record player, or the imperfections of an analog guitar amp become endearing over time. When a perfect digital replacement comes along, it can feel “cold” to those accustomed to the imperfections. There's an entire industry dedicated to reintroducing those analog quirks into the digital realm, recreating that familiar, comforting imperfection.

I agree that cds are better. Mostly because they didn't degrade or make pop or crack noises. Sort of sucks that we didn't have physical flat storage for FLAC. Those are the real deal. But then it depends on the studio mix and recording.

I don't listen to vinyl, but I have a few of them because I like the larger album art and liner notes. My most prized one is a copy of The Kinks "Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround" which includes records of when it was played on the radio.

You're probably right, I'm not an audiophile.

Post your system or stfu.

Sure, but its also easier to push 320kbps mp3s from my tablet via Bluetooth to my Sony soundboard than it is to try and figure out wiring my living room for 7.x dolbydhsdtsxxx audio.

If you feel like coming over and helping with that, I'm open on Thursdays.

I do agree with the sound quality of a CD vs vinyl. Any flaw in the vinyl (including just being a bit dusty) makes popping, hissing or other unwanted noise. CDs aren't as easily damaged and don't introduce unwanted noise unless you hella scratched that shit or had something go wrong with burning it so the data itself was fucked up.

But most musicians putting out vinyl these days are doing so without a middle-man, so you buy the vinyl to support the artist and not some mega corporate label or venue. I don't even have a turn table; I just display the records.

The sales thing tho... That's just because of paragraph 2 and the fact that CD players aren't the norm; digital media and streaming are. Compare vinyl sales to digital sales and not CD sales. Shit, man, I don't even know where you would find CDs for sale these days outside of a big music warehouse that sells used stuff. My local Target doesn't even carry those lame background flute CDs anymore.

I have a portable record player that I Bluetooth stream to my wireless earbuds and I think you’re wrong.

I consider myself an audiophile.

For a second I thought I was back on reddit.

Man, you've got multiple opinions in here that are popular and unpopular in different contexts. In an audiophile community, that opening would be very unpopular

But you also get steaming involved, which is digital rather than CDs in a direct sense.

But the whole "earbud" bit is just silly because the term is often used for IEMs, which can produce amazing sound, even compared to cans or great speakers. Like, my gear is all budget-ish, and my tin t2s hold up well against my beyerdynamics and sennheisers (again, entry tier gear across the board). I've even got those cheap Sony buds that can compare decently to much better IEMs (they don't make them any more, but they came with some of the Sony phones years ago).

So it's hard to tell exactly what you mean by "earbuds" making poor quality audio. It's all about how well made they are imo.

So, I didn't vote on the post, but I feel it is overall a fairly popular opinion outside of audiophile circles, which is where I think you're coming from.

I happen to agree with you on average though. I have a decent vinyl collection thanks to my parents giving theirs to me to add to my own. Sound wise, there's less clarity, more noise, and every play worsens that. They do last longer than CDs though. Some of mine are from the fifties and earlier, but I've had CDs from the nineties end up unplayable just from age. Even the oldest, most played record I have can still play.

I'm a digital guy for listening now though. Good lossless formats are essentially immortal, sound great, and are much easier to store. Rip CDs, enjoy forever :)