Who listens only to vinyl?



WHY, and what turntable set-up are you choosing to live with?
(This is NOT a vinyl versus digital thread, it's a lifestyle thread!)

Recently, I'm heading in this direction, mostly I think because I have never invested enough attention and money to bring up digital listening into the pleasure zone. I also like messing around with record cleaning and arms and cartridges, and worrying whether my TT belt needs replacing. And the sound of course!

If you are one of these vinyl-only people, how did you get there, and how do you feel about living with restricted access to a lot of newer recordings, both classical and other genres? Is it an issue for you?

[Pro-ject 2 Xperience with Shure v15 type IV-JICO SAS stylus]
sumaato
I stopped listening to CD (digital) more than 15 years ago. I am listening exclusively to vinyl. However, I do listen to MP3 in my car though.

CD and vinyl are two different formats. They do sound differently. I like the space and ambience of vinyl sound because I like acoustic music. Techno muisc with heavy synthesiser is not my cup of tea.

I listen mostly to old jazz and classical. I have only 500 to 600 LPs but it will take me a long long time to listen to them all due to the fact that I only have 5 to 6 hours a week to listen to music. Most of the time when I listen to music, I listen to my favourites during that 5 to 6 hours window. As a result, I still have a lot of LPs that I haven't listened to yet. I do buy some of the reissues that are done right. In my situation, I have plenty of music to listen to and I don't follow modern music much.

Additionally, there are a few tweaks I can do to adjust the sound with vinyl. A newly cleaned LP always sounds better. Playing with VTA can help dial in the sound with different pressings. I think it is fun playing vinyl.
95% vinyl 25% SACD less 1% RBCD. SACD close to vinyl at about 10% of the cost. Very few CDs are worth the listening. Sony ES5400 SACD. Lyra titan i, SME V SOTA Cosmos III.
Mostly analog here. LPs and tuner, I have great classical and jazz stations here in Seattle. Only CDs once and a while.
95% vinyl for the past dozen years or so. You can check my system link for gear, but you'll see that it's modest by comparison with a lot of folks on this site. LP records just sound better and less fatiguing to me, and that's why I listen to them. Perfectly willing to listen to new material as mp3 or CDs or whatever, but as always the best stuff stands the test of time. And with a few thousand LPs, carefully selected, I've got on hand more than enough great material that falls into the category of fantastic music. Lots of superb new material on vinyl, by the way, and I pay attention to that stuff.

Wouldn't go so far as the mighty Syntax (maybe because I'm not [yet] spinning records with a system that compares to his incredible analog rig), but for me, like a bunch of others, the priority is not listening to a bunch of new stuff just to listen to new stuff, but to listen to excellent music via recordings that sound like actual music. LP records played on a decent system is a great way to accomplish this. IMHO, of course.