Some people tend to like the distortion and limited dynamic range of vinyl. Plus I guess they like the instant destruction of the track starting on the very first play. They also like the warm distortion of tube gear.
Most nutcase audiophiles with decent hearing (like myself, 25 years ago) spent thousands on esoteric bits of gear like direct-to-disc vinyl, virgin vinyl, the Garrard 301 Grease Bearing turntable, transcription arms, Thorens TD124MKII, DBX 5BX, Altec 604-Es, Bozaks, bazillion dollar cartridges, EQed speaker systems, room analyzers, Dolby gear, other dynamic range inhancers, equalizers, tone control banks, and all of their previous and later iterations, trying to get close to the sound of a simple CD from a vinyl record source.
Most of us tossed out all that junk and routed the signal directly from CD player to gain-controlled amps. It took about two years to get really good CDs, but the worst of them were (and remain) light-years better than vinyl on both sound and durability.
I've listened to masters directly off the Studer, Otari, and others in direct comparison with vinyl. Half of the music is missing on the test pressings, let alone the mass-stamped consumer end-product.
Vinyl remains absolutely great for nostalgia, kinda like going to a high school reunion to see what the homecoming queen and the quarterback look like all those years later.
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