Who listens only to vinyl?

My "good" CD player (Proceed) died 10 years ago. Haven't replaced it yet because LP's keep me so musically involved. Fed up with the constant changes in Digital along with the rising cost of really good players, I decided to concentrate on just improving my LP playback while I ride out the digital storm. Now, once again, all digital as we know it will be outdated as we move on to streaming, flash storage, etc, and a bunch of other schemes I probably don't even know about, let alone understand. I now no longer have a budget for pricey HiFi, so digital will have to wait. I tried out a Music Hall CD 25-2... yuk. Bought and modified a Sony playstation 1 and that is all I need to satisfy me for the CD's I care about. For now, I've settled in with a Well Tempered Super table/Grado Master 1 and George Wright phono pre. going direct into vintage Fisher EL84 mono amps. Sweet, rich, colorful-but not too colored, transparent, clear, liquid, and... fun! Not your typical High End system, but very capable for the cost involved. In another room I use the same AR table I bought in High School back in the early seventies along with a Cary SLP 90 pre. and another pair of the same Fishers. This humble set up also delivers the musical goods. It's different, and obviously not quite as good, but every bit as involving and enjoyable. I'm so used to the extra effort required to live with vinyl that I don't even notice the difference. I grew up when that was all we had, so it just seems normal. I'll admit though. that setting up a new cartridge is getting less enjoyable than it used to be.

I have about 60gb of music on my hard drive--but listen to vinyl virtually exclusively. I like the rituals surrounding vinyl even though they can be seen as nuisances. I don't miss out on the new music because I don't follow it. There's so much music to explore and sticking with vinyl 'forces' one to explore it. A good percentage of the vinyl I have were just whimsical purchases that I probably would never have bought on cd. I am richer musically as a result. A case in point is Ry Cooder's 'Jazz'. Someone had mentioned it as a sounding good on vinyl so I bought it. Now I'm as Cooder obsessed as they come. Of course, the same might have happened if I had bought the cd but knowing myself I probably would not have done so.

It's a really good point.....that chasing vinyl can open one up to previously unknown musical riches and encourages whimsical exploration.

My discoveries: original Fifties mono vocal jazz recordings on the Bethlehem label, and most of Bruno Walter's Bruckner (60 cent thrift store purchases with Senior discount).
I have also come across some oddball records of wonderful interest such as Louis Prima's "The Wildest Show at Tahoe", which I never would have found in any other way.

If I read Gramophone magazine, I sometimes feel like the music world is passing me by, that is until I cruise my local vinyl store and (always) find great music.

I am almost 100% vinyl. I do have a CD player which I keep around for the occasional new CD and to play music that I like but don't have on LP. Of course, I also listen to CDs in the car, but for my main system CDs probably get less than 1% of my listening time.

The "lifestyle" reasons for my nearly all-vinyl listening are pretty straightforward.

* I have over 3000 LPs which I have been collecting for over 45 years. My CD collection is probably less than 200.

* My musical tastes are mostly rooted in the 1950s through 1970s, and since early issue LPs are nearly always better sounding than later issues and LPs always better than CDs, then LPs are the preferred way to enjoy my music.

* My phono playback gear is very good. My CD player is nothing special.

* My linestage no longer has a selector switch. It has a dedicated single-input so I have to move interconnect wires to hook up the CD player. Not a big deal, but it's easier just to spin the record player.

* And the obvious reason that playing records is just more fun.

It's a really good point.....that chasing vinyl can open one up to previously unknown musical riches and encourages whimsical exploration.

My discoveries: original Fifties mono vocal jazz recordings on the Bethlehem label, and most of Bruno Walter's Bruckner (60 cent thrift store purchases with Senior discount).
I have also come across some oddball records of wonderful interest such as Louis Prima's "The Wildest Show at Tahoe", which I never would have found in any other way.

If I read Gramophone magazine, I sometimes feel like the music world is passing me by, that is until I cruise my local vinyl store and (always) find great music.