Pros and Cons of "Staying with" Analog and Vinyl

This is a hobby, if there are aspects you have tired of, move on. If the joy is gone from the whole ritual of the album, let it go. Your current system sounds like a dandy. Keep it to at least transfer music you may not be able to get from another source easily.

I still love my turntable, but mainly use it for music I have on LP's that I do not have available on disc. And don't be so quick to dismiss computer audio, a good music server or such, may open up a new door of musical enjoyment. Most of all have fun listening to the music.

You answered your own question in that vinyl has the inherited problem with the noises you mention. That did it for me too, although I came to the conclusion years ago that the noise distracted me to the point of not caring if I listened to music or not. When you listen to live music, you don't hear all the noises you mention, so why do "audiophiles" continue to seek the "Holy Grail" in their equipment and yet tolerate the noise?
All the above responders gave good advice. It's your ears that are listening, and if the noise bothers you, get rid of the vinyl. Happy listening!

So audiophile of everyone to focus on the aspects of sound quality instead of the core issue, which is access to music.

There are tons of performances that have only been issued on LP and never remastered on any other format, just as there are many performances that have only been available on digital media.

If you are comfortable cutting yourself off from a large part of our recorded heritage, by all means, have at it.

I have gotten out of vinyl just to get right back into. I have done this several times over the last 25 years. I did it as a teenager. OOH look at this new digital thing oooh! it is so convenient and it sound better so I thought. Then one day I digging through my things and I find my old vinyl collection and I say lets listen to some of this old vinyl. I find my old turntable head over to my former employer a hifi store where I worked while in college and buy decent cartridge and a used phonoamp. Find the same music from the vinyl and on CD (same master recording) and go wow where did that come from the vinyl kills digital I am back into vinyl. Then I do this for a few years and then I get stupid and get into home theater sell the turntable but keep the records. Then get tired of every year your freaking receiver or pre-processor is already outdated by the time you drive home from the AV store. Do that AV thing with tons of speakers every where for a couple of years until my live in girlfriend calls me up says I want to watch a movie wile I am out of town and she cannot figure out how to turn the freaking thing on. Sell all the stupid av stuff and buy a extremely expensive Krell DVD player a Krell integrated and a pair of B&W 802 Nautilus and a cable box. Did not even miss the AV junk. Then one day I horse traded into a Nakamichi CR7A cassette deck and while testing it before I sold it here on audiogon. I find some cassette tapes that I recorded off of vinyl and others off of CD and wow what a difference the cassettes made off of vinyl sounded better than the ones made off of CD. Then I do an A-B comparison of a NAK CR7A against a $10,000 Krell DVD player. The cassette deck wins. Now I bought a used Sota Star Nova turntable with a SME V, Koetsu Rosewood Signature and a krell phonoamp from an older gentleman who was one of my previous customers from when I worked in the audio store. Got it home and wow I have never been happier. My system has changed so many times I cannot count but now I always keep vinyl as the focus and supplement it with a decent digital rig. I have have a modified Mac Mini music server with a decent DAC and a Oppo BDP 95. The digital is just sound and it is convenient but when I want to listen to something really special I put a record on my Sota Cosmos MK IV. Do not get out of vinyl just enjoy it and use the digital just as filler.

Since I have a large collection of vinyl (and also digital media) I have continued to own and use high-quality phonograph systems.

If I did not own a large vinyl collection already, I would probably not get into it now as back in the day, I bought most of my vinyl for $5 to $8 per lp, and that was the dominant format of the time. Now, new vinyl records are selling for $20 to $50 per record and I can't bring myself to buy them except in special cases.

That said, my vinyl still gives me something that my best digital has not matched, namely more air in the highs and faster sounding high frequency transients. The faster sounding transients add to the impact and realism I get from high frequency percussion instruments and that increases my you-are-there experience. Digital is not bad by any means, but it does not quite do the same thing that analog does, probably due to the types of digital filtering that are commonly used to roll off "unwanted" high frequency nasties.

I even get this extra air and impact from old cassette tapes I've made from my records years ago... it's definitely an analog thing. So I like having the best of both worlds.

Of course not every vinyl system will provide the kind of speed, air, and control that I get from my system, so many vinyl users will not hear this clear-cut difference in the highs (bass too, come to think of it) I'm speaking of. In fact, dare I say, that vinyl playback through digital amplification is a true blast if you get it right!