Ask an Audio geek

[Kosh]

Vinyl has becomes a premium priced (aka expensive) niche market.  I think the general consensus is that people who listen to vinyl care more about how their music sounds.  Your not listening to your vinyl on a phone with cheap earbuds.  The good Artist/record labels will actually go back to the original recording tracks (before the mastering process), and create a vinyl specific master that is free from dynamic range compression and excessive volume levels.  

That is insane. If an artist/record label has the ability to access the original recording before it was butchered, why record it onto a vinyl record? That's idiocy. If you care about quality, record that original onto a CD or make it available in a lossless digital format like WAV.

I stand by my original statement: Vinyl is snake oil. It's a ridiculous product. Original recordings, free from coloration is good but offer it in a modern format. That's what we should be demanding. What they're doing by offering it in vinyl is promoting a stupid myth that digital = bad and there is something magical and good about vinyl. It's utter nonsense and you obviously know it.

It's your choice but to me, buying vinyl is perpetuating and validating a fraud. Why not demand proper mastering on a modern format? If there is a demand, someone will step up to fulfill it because there is money to be made.

 
I agree with you somewhat.  The truth is that the "Loudness War" problems were around long before vinyl made a resurgence.  Some people have been complaining about it since the mid 1990's, but the truth is that most music consumers just don't give a crap.  They hit the download button in iTunes like a rat hitting the feeder bar.  Their main or only listening source is as MP3 on their phone with a cheap pair of headphones which obviously isn't very revealing.

I've bought a few albums off HDTracks in the past.  CD is 16bit/44.1Khz, but HDTracks sells albums up to 24bit/192khz.  The ones I've purchased sound amazing on a full fidelity stereo system, but it's not because of the extra sampling rate and bits.  It's because these albums were remastered to a high standard.  I'm sure they would sound awesome on CD, but again we are talking about a premium price niche market.  
 
One thing to consider about Vinyl.  Yes, it can be expensive to buy new albums.  I personally don't buy many at all.  On average, I buy probably 5 a year.  I get my value off the used market.  I've purchased lots of up to 400 records at a time off craigslist for .10 each.