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
What you are calling ‘highest quality’ misses the mark for many music lovers and audiophiles. Many of us want the richest emotional experience we can get to carry from the musicians and singers in the studio or concert hall to our listening room.
That can include a whole environment of factors. The physical media, the album art, the act of flipping through albums, the ritual of setting up the turntable with the record, hearing the stylus drop, the mental and emotional space that come with that deep breath we take just as we hear the music start on side 1, the meditative depth of experience as this side of a particular album plays only these songs in only this order for only this length of time, the depth and nuance of this particular reproduction of this music through these speakers or headphones and all the care we have put into each piece of equipment and this listening room, and the contemplative space and emotional afterglow when the tone arm returns to it’s cradle.
You have hit on quite a resounding beat here - pardon the pun.
Most musicians, like creative people and artists all over the world, cannot explain to you where their art comes from.
Sure, we live in an age when almost every song ever produced is available at our fingertips in the highest resolution possible - instantly. And that’s super cool. I’m a fan.
However….An accountant can show you a spreadsheet and the numbers make sense.
But music comes from a place of heart and soul and spirit, and yes some logic too. I guess this is why I love the process of sifting through my dusty record collection, giving them a good clean and playing them on my turntable, hisses, pops and all.
It reminds me of that heart and soul and spirit.