Better than the spork, even

Conducting the latest Marketplace of Ideas conversation with Travis Elborough, author of The Vinyl Countdown, a history of the vinyl LP, brought a question to mind: people love vinyl, some people — mostly of a certain hip-hop generation — love cassettes, but has anyone ever loved the poor, rapidly-getting-irrelevant compact disc? Elborough replied that, well, naturally, someone must have loved it at some point, and they certainly sounded fantastic when first introduced. But I'd say it's undeniable that, at sixty years old, vinyl claims orders of magnitude more declared enthusiasts than the CD, over its 27 years, ever has.

That's not to approve of the sort of vinyl fetishism that goes on these days — I also enjoy reading, but fixation on books themselves or any media objects over and above their content irks me — though I must remain vigilant not to fall into it myself. My collection habit began in high school, at the feverish peak of my Goodwill-haunting days, but back then, when the majority of my listening hours happened in the car, vinyl was little more than a novelty. It's since pulled out in front of every other music delivery system; rare is the night I don't come home and drop the needle on something or other. I just yesterday Craigslist-purchased an additional Tec 12, for nefarious DJing purposes, from a dude in deep Isla Vista. Those 35-pound S.O.B.s really turn heads when you're schlepping them around by hand. Especially when you take them into Barnes & Noble. Or to get a burrito.

This ends a long spell of CD-only spinning for me, which I can't help but argue says something, grandly, about the listening world as a whole. I don't plan to affect a metamorphosis into one of those insufferable everything-sucks-but-vinyl DJs — my setup will likely remain two-CD-one-vinyl at least until I buy a car move all this gear from place to place like a civilized human being — but vinyl's essentialness becomes clearer to me with every play. Why? I have no ironclad answer, and I hesitate to join the chorus of tofu-soft defenses like "vinyl has life." Two facts do stand out, though. (a) Vinyl provides a superior user experience, and lately I've gotten big on the experience component damn near everything — film, food, interaction — to the exclusion of most other elements. (b) Vinyl is a better design object than other formats. Hell, it's a better design object than most other objects. I've half a mind to declare the vinyl LP the best object of the past century. This is a designation CDs will never, ever win, and it has two words to thank for that: jewel cases. Oh, the affront, the affront to my tender sensibilities!