It's not about the playback system, it's about the music. Anyone who doesn't get that probably needs to broaden their perspective.
The loudness war has all but ruined CD audio for me, and the only genre of music that seems to remain untouched by it is classical music...so far. But for now I still buy classical music on CD (and especially SACD when available). I steer clear of everything else on the CD format. For jazz, rock, etc. it is vinyl first; I will only consider CD if it is music that I absolutely must have in my library.
Another good reason to consider having a vinyl setup is that it opens the door and provides access to music that has never been and may never be released on the CD format. If all you care about is rock music then this is less likely to impact you. However, if you enjoy classical, country, bluegrass, blues, folk, or virtually anything else, then a vinyl setup can make good sense.
Now a few words about quality. Both vinyl and CD are capable of superb sound quality. Vinyl's Achilles heel is physical defects and it can be a very distracting and annoying problem. With new records this could come in the form of bad pressings. I have bought enough defective 200g records from Classic Records to know that I will never buy another one again. When they are good though, they are truly amazing. My 200g vinyl copy of Jascha Heifetz's Sibelius Violin Concerto in D Minor sounds much better to my ears than the RCA Living Stereo SACD, for example.
The problem with vintage vinyl is usually groove wear/damage. People seem to think that a record cleaning machine (RCM) works miracles and will restore worn out records to like-new condition. Getting vinyl records clean is not rocket science, but there are a lot of companies out there trying to convince you of that and are all too happy to take your money. I own a RCM myself, but not because I think it cleans better than I could by hand. It cleans and drys records faster than I can by hand, so I use it for speed and convenience.
I buy a lot of vintage vinyl, most of which was pressed in the 1950s and 1960s. It is mainly classical and jazz. Good records from this period can sound incredible. But we are talking about records that are some 50 to 60 years old, from a time when people had a tendency to not to take great care of their records like the typlical vinylphile does today. So finding undamaged, unworn records from this period that sound great is getting more and more difficult. But it can be done. I try to buy my vintage records in bulk lots whenever possible. I usually can get them at a per-record cost of between 50 to 75 cents. So if I buy 100 LPs and 25 of them are worn out and no good, then it doesn't hurt to throw them away. That still leaves me with 75 great sounding LPs with a per-record cost between 75 cents and $1 each. I have many, many vintage records that would simply amaze you with how great they sound. These records have little to no surface noise and no pops or clicks, and I would stack up their sound quality against any CD.
In summary, the only distortions I see are in this thread. People tend to resort to gross exaggeration and even a little intellectual dishonesty to make their points. It may make for an entertaining read, but it doesn't do a thing to increase our collective knowledge or help others make informed choices.
--Jerome
