Why Are Vinyl Records Making a Comeback ... It can't be because the audio is superior is it? Could it  be some sort of marketing ploy that pulls at the heartstrings of the nostalgia in folks?  

Considering the mechanical noise involved in playing a record, it's not that the sound is superior, but analog records have a different sound than digital playback. Personally, I've never stopped playing records, and I enjoy listening to them. Part of the enjoyment may be the tactile experience (and the large images/liner information) but whatever the attraction I'm still buying records when I can and I'll enjoy this vinyl resurgence as long as it lasts.   

 
This thread surely belongs elsewhere... yesterday I stumbled across this article :
 
      The Work of Reproduction in the Mechanical Aging of an Art :  Listening to noise
 
 "Given the current state of technology, the significance of such noise increases in direct proportion to its avertability. Indeed, technology itself is now ready and willing to aid in this purposeful nonavoidance of noise. Digidesign, for example, offers a "D-Fi Plug-Ins Package" which it describes as "specifically designed for creating grungy, warped, and other weird sounds." Opcode similarly offered "fusion: Vinyl." According to the company, this software "applies flawlessly realistic DSP models of turntable characteristics like platter motor rumble, fidelity and speed (33/45/78), vinyl record surface properties like wear, dust, static, warp, and dirt, and other vintage audio playback system artifacts to individual tracks or entire mixes." We now have some very high-tech means to achieve "lo-fi" ends."
 ...
"Noise thinly and seductively partitions perception and meaning, recognition and understanding. Whether heard as an actual scuffed recording, in a simulated one, or as a conceptual model epitomized by Paul Lansky's Smalltalk, noise is the suggestion of signification beneath a non-signifying agency.  Noise is a style of distance - a distance that can be meaningfully confused or exchanged with location, memory, presence, absence, temporality, and experience. For listeners, the application of noise, whether literally or as a construct, then, represents the activation of the space between them and the object. Conversely, for the composer, it is the control of such activation that matters. The crossing of that distance is a drama all the more beautiful for its lack of a stage."
 
Cheaper to pull out the old turntable and record collection.
 

As above, vinyl sounds different.  Not necessarily better, esp. technically, but if you grew up listening to vinyl it is like comfort food.  There are all sorts of imperfections w/ records, of course, from flutter to scratches.  But it still sounds good, if you are used to it.  Not low-fi, just a different.  I would like to say the difference is like that of eating a blackberry I pick in summer out a the farm from one imported from Chile or wherever in the winter.  More real.  But I don't think that is quite right, it ain't that different.
 
There is a clarity in digital you won't find on most vinyl.  I usually spend a day every couple of months capturing some of my old vinyl to digital just for kicks.  And I buy vinyl these days because it is cool and collectible and many have digital downloads you can get, too.  I got the Chemical Bros and it sounds good.  And the Black Angels' first release.  And another local Austin guy, Black Joe Lewis.  That is a real collector's item since the EP is out of print.  But paying a few bucks more helps a small band, esp. when they are selling it themselves and you get to meet them - or whomever gets picked to sell records instead of drink and meet girls ;-)   And most digital systems are way easier to use - you can listen to a random play all day instead of having to get up and switch sides.  But that is not the same as enjoying an album, warts and all, rather than a background item like when I'm writing on a forum.
 
@

I think vinyl only came back because of the loudness war. Now that there is a standard to contain the loudness of digital music, vinyl will fade away.

Every time you play a record, you wear it out a little more.

It's pure nostalgia.
You come from the womb, and you end up crawling back inside it.

For me I hated vinyl and cassettes way before CD's even came out.

I don't think it's entirely due to nostalgia, although that's a factor. I really think Robert got it right suggesting a connection to the loudness war. Vinyl just can't be mastered as hot as a digital recording, so it has to be done more conservatively.
 
That's a big part of why vinyl sounds better - it's not the medium, which is clearly inferior to digital by any conceivable standard. The same can be said about music on DVD, which often sounds better than its CD equivalent. It's not the medium, but the care that went into the mixing and mastering.

It is a funny thing.... I remember how I hated vinyl in that as soon as you started to play a new record was the day you started to ruin it.... therefore, I remember getting a reel to reel and recording my first listen to an album so that I could at a later date, enjoy the record without the pops and clicks.
 
Then I heard about CDs and my worries about pops and clicks were answered.... they sounded good but the packaging wasn't there....
 
Then I learned about MP3s.... every song ever recorded could fit on my PC... simply AMAZING.... yeah, they didn't sound as good but the amount of music available was amazing.
 
Then, a couple of years ago, I decided to go back to HI FI... I treated our family to a RETRO room where I fitted it with a decent turntable, integrated amp and speakers (and yes, I added a TEAC reel to reel for nostalgia's sake)..... 
 
Started purchased the 180gram vinyl re issues of the old classics and was I a bit disappointed.... the pops were back, etc.  The music sounded good but not GREAT.  So, I decided to research SACD's.  Got an old DVD player that could play SACDs, got the correct connections for my amp and listened to some SACD music.... MAN what a difference... sounded GREAT actually.
 
However, the available material for SACD's was very limited and after about hunting down 10 releases in SACD format (had to import most of them from England or JAPAN), paying $50 to $100 per record, I decided to research HD audio.  More specifically FLAC files.  Stumbled upon HDTRACKs... read what I needed to about how to pull this off, got a cheap dedicated laptop for the retro (now turning modern room) and installed J River media player, purchased some of the classics on HDTRACKs for $15, downloaded them and presto magic, finally found the holy grail of listening nirvana.
 
I learned how to convert DVD Audio to FLAC and am building up my listening library between purchasing FLAC files and DVD Audio new re issues (which run from $20 to about $30 a piece).  I since added a good set of cans with a headphone amp and really have the best listening room that I have ever had since I started enjoying music some 50 years ago. Some of these reissues include both the original mixes and new modern mixes of the same material.  Sometimes the original mix does it for me but other times, the new mix does it for me (AQUALUNG comes to mind where I enjoy the new mix more than the older familiar mix).
 
I will say the trip back to vinyl retro led my to FLAC files and HD audio and I have now abandoned my vinyl idea for good.
 
For those who have not heard a proper FLAC file of a classic LP, do yourself a favor and check this out.
 
Jim
 

cpkoch
Why Are Vinyl Records Making a Comeback ... It can't be because the audio is superior is it? Could it  be some sort of marketing ploy that pulls at the heartstrings of the nostalgia in folks?  

Needles