i completely get preferring analog media, so if it’s about the sound characteristics (that ‘warmth’), having physical media, etc fair enough. but if the goal of an audiophile is to get the highest quality reproduction of a recording wouldn’t CDs or FLACs be your best bet?
maybe this only really applies for newer music, perhaps digital releases for music recorded analogue are just digitized vinyl or reel to reel recordings but for music produced in DAWs the highest quality version available for that release would surely be either a CD or a digital FLAC release
I completely agree with what some people said here already. Vinyl records shouldn’t sound this good given that it’s a relatively old technology. I recently got new speakers and amp on my set up and played MJ Thriller from MoFi and I was absolutely blown away by the sound. It’s pressed on super vinyl so it’s as quiet as you can imagine and it sounds so freakin good! I also found a sealed MFSL copy of Breakfast in America and although it’s 30+ years old there’s no pops, absolutely dead quiet and sounds like it fell from heaven! So I guess it’s very subjective and some records sound betted on vinyl and others don’t. I like mechanical things so there’s also that aspect. I got trapped in the cassette rabbit hole recently and it’s also very addictive though very different from vinyl but you still keep the mechanical feel!