For my 17th birthday, I received an orange record player and vinyls of my two favorite bands, Arctic Monkeys and Walk the Moon. I had heard vinyls are the only way to listen to music the way the artist intended it, and I was excited to hear what the fuss was about. However, I was immediately disappointed. While I loved my record player, the music on it sounded no more high-quality than the MP3s I had on my phone. I had been misinformed, and clearly so had many others. So I think it’s time to set the record straight, pun intended.

Many music lovers say vinyls are superior to digital files such as MP3s and M4As, because digital music files are compressed so they don’t take up as much space. This process is known to remove natural texture and dynamics, making tracks sound different than the artist intended. However, while it’s true vinyls do not need to be compressed, many modern vinyls are compressed anyway due to changes in the way music is recorded.

Furthermore, some genres of music with dramatic highs and lows, like electronic music, don’t translate well to vinyl. Plus, longer albums are expensive to press. In order to fit it on the record, the grooves in the vinyl would need to be too skinny for quality sound, and multiple records would be needed. That would increase the cost for the consumer.

In addition, vinyls are fragile. It is almost impossible to protect a record from dust and other surface impurities entirely. Even with careful maintenance, records are prone to scratching, skipping and popping. On the flip side, this doesn’t happen to digital files. They are also infinitely more portable than vinyls and are more accessible due to their cheaper prices. New vinyls can cost as much as $40 and may need to be replaced with frequent use, while digital albums cost around $8.99 and will be in your library forever.

While on the surface vinyls may seem of higher quality than digital music, the truth is that the differences in quality are usually due more to the  quality of the speakers used than the inherent quality of the tracks.

Still, record players have a place in modern music. The real joy of owning a record player isn’t its superior quality, but the ritual of it, removing the record from its sleeve and listening to the album all the way through. It’s an experience I highly recommend to anyone who loves music. Records are also a neat collectors’ item. With blown up album art and extras like liner notes, they are fun to own, especially if you love that specific album. Plus, vinyl’s characteristically “warm” sound plays to the natural range of human hearing, making it pleasing to the ears.

For me, vinyls are an investment. They’re something to purchase when I know I like the artist and the album. Digital files, on the other hand, are better suited for music discovery, a cheap and accessible way to hear new albums I might buy a vinyl of in the future.
In the end it all comes down to preference. Are you the sort of person who likes to keep your music collection updated with the newest songs? Do you like to take your music collection with you everywhere you go? If that’s the case, vinyl might not be for you. But if you love an album enough to want to listen to it again and again, or you’re interested in hearing an album the way its artist intended it to be heard, or even if you want to listen to music in a new way, why not give vinyl a try?

The views in this column do not necessarily reflect the views of the HiLite staff. Reach Gillian Paxton at [email protected].