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
That’s not even remotely true, although most audiophiles own or want to own a turntable.
Sometimes people want to listen to vinyl in order to bask in glow of analog and actively listen to music off a vinyl record.
But many audiophiles focus on CDs, streaming, or music files for the majority or vast majority of the time.
Still, playing a vinyl record evokes a certain nostalgia: the act of putting on a record, listening to it, then having to flip the record all to soon. One has to physically get up to change the record, another bit of nostalgia that harkins back to a simpler time of a bygone era. A romantic idea for sure, but one that many audiophiles subscribe to on occasion.
But that’s a far cry from vinyl being “preferred”.