Is vinyl dead ?

Vinyl is not dead, but I hope that one day soon it is put out of its misery. Dragging a small rock with a wire attached to it through a concoction of semi-solid oil and then amplifying the resulting electrical signal by a factor of 2000x is a primitive system worthy of a Rube Goldberg award. It's nearly as bad an engineering design as the 4 stroke internal combustion engine (the piston comes to a dead stop TWICE each power phase). Vinyl should not be declare totally dead until engineers and designers have exhausted all practical, and even some unpractical, refinements in vinyl mastering and turntable/tonearm/cartridge design. I don't think we are at that endpoint, yet. However, it's clear to me that any significant future advances (as opposed to refinements) in sound reproduction will be in the high sample rate digital arena.

Regarding the concept of death in general, check out the Showtime series "Dead Like Me". It's interesting to say the least. Also, as John Garfield so accurately stated way back in a 1947 film: Everybody dies! What's so special about vinyl that it's supposed to live forever.

That's a good point, Onhwy61. I agree it is an archaic medium. I am anxiously awaiting for the technology that can surpass it.

Dougdeacon, Apology accepted.
I never ment to get into the old pissing match between digital and vinyl. The sound quality was not what this thread was about. The thread is discussing the decline of popularity on vinyl, and i simply added my observations to reinforce this theory.

Vader

Tom your post
"08-14-03: Twl
Maybe if they had a functional vinyl rig running in the store, they'd have some demand."

Tom, you really have out done yourself again. You hit all the major points. This post should be pointed to in the future the next time some digivite gets a little defensive about their media choice.
We have been down this road before.

Hey 007 you need to lighten up a little. The folks on this analog forum (the lunatic fringe, what ever that kind or comment is supposed to accomplish) are for the most part very nice and will go out of their way to help you with any audio problem you have. Sometimes we don't always say it with grace.
I can see 007 you have spent a lot of time and money on your system. I bet it sounds great! Only thing the nice folks here were saying (because we all wanted CD to be better than it is) if you had a Teres you would have a different opinion. IMHO
Peace,Cheers
Roni

Rockinroni...To paraphrase George Orwell..."ALL audiophiles are in the "lunatic fringe", but some audiophiles are more loony than others".