Do you like vinyl?

I like vinyl and I am guessing a number of you do as well. But let me suggest that if we like vinyl, what we really mean is we like tape. Or perhaps even more accurately, we like an inferior copy of tape. Both definitions will do. 99% of all LP's ever pressed were copied from recording tape. Certainly there were a handful of direct to disc recordings that skipped the tape process. And those direct to disc LP's generally sounded a lot better than what we're used to, copied from tape. As recently as the mid 1980's some LP's were copies of digital audio recordings. But for the most part, LP's are copies of tape. And neither tape nor LP's benefit from the copying process. I've heard many master tapes back in the day. They sounded better than their vinyl counter parts. So if we like LP's, we like tape. If we like tape and LP's we like analog. And most of us understand those analog recording/playback mediums are limited. They are restricted in terms of dynamics, noise levels and frequency response. They're limited relative to the real deal, live music. But they sure sound good. To be clear "analog" isn't limited, just the traditional means of recording and playback it back are. For example, most amplifiers and preamplifiers are analog and we can extend their dynamics and frequency response beyond any human auditory capability. Many of us cling to our analog playback mediums because, for the most part, they sounds more like real music than anything else we've listened to, despite their obvious limitations. Take a moment to digest a great article by our friend George Moneo called Quo vadis, "analog" we just published. I think you'll find it stimulating.