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Comment by Cthulhu_ | Hacker News Reader

Vinyl (IMO) isn't about it being retro or having "better" sound quality (whatever that means, it's mostly subjective), but about having a collectable, physical item. I think CDs were a step backwards, not because the sound quality was off but because the boxes were smaller and fragile; I've never owned any music CDs.

Digital music is neat for listening to music, but it also feels like it lowers the value of it.

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Jewel cases may be fragile but LPs are far more vulnerable to damage than CDs are. There are much better ways to hold a CD collection.

Like retro PC game collectors, they realpy just want that giant box! Most of their games are probably just ISOs on an SSD.

> I think CDs were a step backwards, not because the sound quality was off but because the boxes were smaller and fragile

Smaller, yes, but fragile? Certainly not more fragile than Vinyl.

The jewel cases absolutely were more fragile than the cardboard that was typical of vinyl, but vinyl itself is more fragile than CDs, though the failure modes are completely different.

The jewel case does have the advantage of being easily replaceable too though - you can transfer album art/booklets and in most cases the result looks the same as the original.

With vinyl, album artwork and the case are the same thing and damaging or destroying the case also damages or destroys the album art - you can’t really replace the case without repurchasing the record if the art matters to you.

> The jewel cases absolutely were more fragile than the cardboard

CD cases more easily break catastrophically but I think that, for most kinds of impacts, CD cases are less easily damaged than vinyl sleeves.

Water damages them less easily, they’re less susceptible to smudges, corners don’t get creased, etc.

Most people buying vinyl in 2026 don't own a record player. Because that's not the point.

This probably isn't the point either, but I get an almost perverse level of calm knowing that for my most favourite albums, I own a physical representation of the waveform trapped in a medium.

I very rarely listen to them in that form, but I honestly like the idea that in a post-Carrington event, zombie apocalypse or mad-max style future where electricity or electronics become scarce, I can (if desperate enough) listen to them with a nail and a cone.

I think there's something to be said for _any_ physical media when it comes to audio.

I hate opening my phone/laptop to put music on, inadvertently opening HN/lichess, and watching the next few hours vanish in silence.

Also deeper engagement, and a big second hand and artist-driven markets keeping my money out of the hands of NastyCorp.

Vinyl is just the nicest.

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