Yes, I listen to vinyl, have been listening since I was born (from 1971 to 1978, our only source of music at home was vinyl). Dad's cassette deck arrived in 1978 but vinyl still dominated till 1985 or so. Then there was a bit of a dip as I started listening to my own system (initially radio with an amplifier and later on, cassette). CD arrived in the house hold in 1997 again, with me. Dad still continued on with vinyl. I got back into vinyl independently in 2003 and have continued ever since. I listen to vinyl becase it sounds a lot more warmer and pleasant when compared to other formats. I also am into vinyl for the following reasons:
1) Its in the family. Most of our family's memories are associated with the records which we used to listen to. In those days, with no TV, on Saturdays and Sundays, Dad used to take us to our hall and he, mom, and the 3 of us used to sit down and listen to records for 4-5 hours at a stretch. My mother used to encourage us to sing the songs on the LPs so dad used to queue them for her to write down the lyrics. It was great family bonding and entertainment. Dad is long gone but when mom and we sit down with those records, we still recall the days, listening to Jim Reeves, Skeeter Davis, Buck Owens, Tom Jones, Englebert Humperdinck, Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix, James Last, Osibisa, Boney M and Abba, to name a few. Mom used to gift dad, vinyl records on every single birthday of his, back in those days. He was more interested in the birthday gift than the birthday cake or the birthday wishes. Vinyl was a very common and welcomed gift item, back then.
2) Vinyl helps me remember my school days. I recall, our school used to have music played across the campus during the lunch hour. I used to stand outside the Vice Principal's room and watch our seniors play records on an old radio gram with a garrard changer. A mic used to be placed in front of the radio gram's speaker which fed some speakers through an Ahuja PA amp. I have actually managed to collect most of the titles which we had in our school collection, over the years. Lots of memories attached.
3) I love the art of playing and maintaining vinyl, its very appealing to me. We've grown up with turntables and records, and understand them well.
4) Bragging rights: Being into vinyl is considered very cool with a lot more people these days, considering it to be a very expensive and high-end hobby. To say one is into collecting vinyl is like saying that one is into collecting art or into vintage cars and bikes. Lots or curiosity, lots of respect!!
5) Dad would have wanted it that way. He never forced us to accept vinyl or he never tried to hard sell the concept to impress us. Even when I branched out into tapes and CDs, he never attempted to convince me to return to vinyl. When he came to know that I was into vinyl, he was impressed. We used to share long conversations (right from my child hood days) discussing various aspects of vinyl playback, turntables and amplification. He had experienced a lot of vintage hi-fi and was like a walking encyclopedia. Also since he was a Telecom engineer and understood the theory behind everything, more indepth insight was available at our finger tips. This has translated into our restoration activities these days.
