Unpopular take: I think vinyl sounds worse on purpose and that's fine

Last week I was at a buddy's place in Austin listening to his $2,000 turntable setup and I actually told him I preferred the digital stream over his fancy vinyl press. He looked at me like I kicked his dog. But here's the thing - I spent 3 years repairing old Technics tables for people and I noticed vinyl has this warm distortion that people call "character" but it's basically just noise from the needle dragging through a groove. I get why people love it, it's like preferring a Polaroid over a DSLR. That grain and pop is part of the experience, not a flaw. But can we stop pretending it's technically superior to a clean FLAC file? Has anyone else had a vinyl fan get defensive when you point out the actual science of signal to noise ratio?

2 comments

2 Comments

andrew_miller9025d ago

The needle dragging through a groove" is exactly it, man. I had a similar thing happen at a record store last month. The guy behind the counter was bragging about his $800 cartridge and I just asked him what the signal to noise ratio was. He got all quiet. I love my vintage vinyl too but I'm not out here pretending the pops and crackles are something magical. It's literally dust and wear.

rileyl9825d ago

Lol I'm pretty sure half the warmth in my setup is just my speaker grills getting dusty.