The current vinyl revival is a curious thing... most seem to want crap sound! Lots of clicks and pops, background hiss and rumble and preferably breaking up loud notes due to mistracking are apparently "the sound of vinyl" to non audiophiles.... When I hear people on the radio saying "...but music just sounds so much better on vinyl" this seems to be what they mean!! When they make a point of saying "and now from vinyl" it usually sounds as I just described... followed by the DJ saying "ah isn't it marvellous! That authentic sound of the clicks and pops...."
Yep. A while ago they did an all vinyl "Pick of the Pops" on R2. Every single record sounded awful. But, apparently, people loved it. "Authenticity" sells. And vinyl is "authentic". Like organic coffee and beards.
People "want to believe". My friend recently got a turntable, and he repeatedly told me how much better it was than his digital source. When I got to hear, though it sounded better than I expected, it was still lacking top end, had far too much (boomy) bass and a general lack of resolution, space, and realism. I thought "maybe his setup isn't as good as I remember". But no. When he moved to the digital source, same piece, the music sounded alive, engaging, and generally superb.
The reason digital took off was partly convenience, but, also because it sounded SO MUCH better than most people's record/tape decks. Not a bit better. WAY better. Cheap digital is good. It's all subjective I know, but the idea that a low-end rega and a £30 phono stage is in any way "better" than any competent DAC is, IMO, a joke.
I often say that "everything is an approximation: you just have to find the approximation you like best". If you like a budget turntable best, I can't argue with that. Hell, listen to all your music through a ring modulator for all I care, but for me the vinyl revival is showing that self-delusion works just as well at the low-end as the high.
EDIT: for context, there are 5,000 records in our living-room.
