The Vinyl Resurgence is Dumb

For the second time since 1987, vinyl albums outsold CDs in units (43 million vs 37 million)

— Recording Industry Association of America’s 2023 Year-End Revenue Statistics

This is objectively silly.

• Most modern vinyl is from digital masters, so you get all the downsides of vinyl without the benefits of no digitization.
  • If the master was 24-bit, then fine, you're getting greater SNR; but you're not playing your music at 94dB (the practical limit of 16-bit audio) and you probably don't have negative thresholds (and if you do, they're not better than -15dB, which they'd have to be to make 24-bit worthwhile at 80dB listening levels).
    • This is assuming the studio's mic had an SNR good-enough to full take advantage of 24-bit audio… which it didn't. Even human ears (which are comically-advanced alien technology) cap out at encoding 100dB, let-alone 120dB.
  • If the master was 48000Hz+ instead of 44100Hz, you're still not benefitting, because you absolutely cannot hear past 22050Hz (the highest 44100Hz sampling can play at) unless you're a unicorn child; and because downsampling with a high-end algorithm is not going to significantly affect audio quality, especially not compared to the other processing they do to music.
  • If the master was analog, then congratulations! You probably still can't actually hear the difference between that and equivalent digitally-mastered vinyl.
• Vinyl does not have error correction. CDs will play through minor scratching without any loss in quality. Vinyl makes scratches immediately audible. Even significant scratching often plays through acceptably on CDs because of interpolation. And heavy scratching can be repaired through resurfacing. This cannot be said of vinyl.
• Vinyl is more-fragile than CDs because it is larger, so it acts as a larger lever against itself than a CD. Also, CDs are literally made of bulletproof glass.
• Vinyl warps in heat, including very hot cars. CDs, meanwhile, are absurdly heat-resistant.
• CDs are smaller, which makes them easier to transport and store, and their shelves can be much less deep. You have finite 3D space available to you.
• Jewel cases have legible spines. You can scan through your entire library in seconds without having to flip a single sleeve.
• Jewel cases are way better protection than paper. Yes, some CDs come in paper too; but that's no worse than vinyl coming in paper, and unlike vinyl, CDs aren't seriously liable to be seriously scuffed by their own sleeve.
• CD players are abundant. Extremely good CD players are very affordable (look up Plextors on eBay). Can you say that about your turntable?
• CD players don't need perfect isolation from their surface or perfect balance.
• CD players don't have a delicate exposed spindle.
• Cheap CD players aren't generally going to scratch your discs. Cheap turntables, on the other hand…
• You can rip CDs to your computer. How are you backing up your precious vinyl? You aren't.
• You can't realistically make a mixtape on vinyl; you can make a mixtape on a CD, and your friends can play it.
• CDs are less-time-consuming to get working and keep working.

Possibly the only thing vinyl has going for it is larger art. If you want to hang something on your wall, vinyl is unbeatable. But for playback? Seriously, just get a CD. There are a mountain of good reasons why humans stopped using vinyl in the '90s.

One last thing worth mentioning: if a vinyl release sounds noticeably different than a CD equivalent and it's not from damage, it's because the label shipped a different master for the different formats, not because vinyl inherently sounds better. Oftentimes, even two seemingly identical CDs sound different if one was released in the US and the other in Europe. This is not a format thing; it's a market segmentation "we think this consumer will like this music better with these tweaks" thing. You can get the same "warmth" with an equalizer on your computer.

As for "if vinyl isn't worth it, then why buy CDs if streaming exists":

• CD == Uncompressed, like a bitmap. Streaming/MP3 == You're listening to a JPG.
• Entire CD == Usually cheaper than buying MP3s on iTunes.
• Some audio is only available on CD and cannot be found online.
• Digital sovereignty: Own your own music. Don't get screwed by YouTube/Spotify taking down your favorite song.
• Spending your Spotify subscription on CDs instead gets you a large library surprisingly quickly.
• A wall of physical media is a flex. You can physically show off your collection to friends, or stand there and marvel at it yourself.