As I watch my Fugazi record spin and listen to the sounds come through the speakers, I can’t help but smile. Even the hisses and pops of the vinyl sound just right. I look at my collection, and I am almost tempted to pull a Rob Gordon from “High Fidelity” and rearrange them based on my life events. CDs never sound this good. My iTunes collection will never mean so much.

Lately, with the decline in CD sales, an older fad has returned to the market. Vinyl, yes that’s right, good ol’ bulky yet charming vinyl records have made a comeback.

Dilyn Radakovitz, co-owner of Dimple Records, has noticed the resurgence of vinyl firsthand.

“Vinyl has really started coming back, I would say, probably last year and more and more as the year started ending,” Radakovitz said.

Just like CDs, vinyl is easy to load to the Internet and share with others. But while CDs have fallen victim to this pirating trend, vinyl seems to have been immune.

While Radakovitz is fully aware of the decline in CD sales, she does not believe they will be completely destroyed by music pirating. As far as she is concerned, people have always and will always steal music.

“I think people are always going to steal music, whether it’s online or just peer-to-peer file sharing. I mean people even did that from the radio. They would put it on a cassette,” Radakovitz said.

Along with file sharing, music downloads have also become extremely popular. Nielson SoundScan, a music sales tracker, reported that while compact disc sales fell nearly 20 percent in 2008, digital music downloads increased 27 percent to over 1 billion sales.

But even with the convenience of downloadable music, some people are interested in a more intimate musical experience. Some people want more than the MP3 format has to offer.

“People who are really into music either want the vinyl because there is a lot more warmth and depth in vinyl or a CD because you can just hear more quality,” Radakovitz said.

Ean Clebinger, junior philosophy and social science major, has played music in different bands for almost 18 years. One of his bands, Dance for Destruction, is currently producing a new album. The band plans to release its new record on vinyl and downloadable formats rather than CD.

Clebinger said while the demand for CDs is quickly fading, vinyl has become popular yet again.

SoundScan reported that vinyl sales nearly doubled in 2008 reaching 1.88 million, the highest total sale of vinyl since it began keeping track of vinyl sales 1991.

Of course, vinyl is not completely pirate-proof. In fact, it’s becoming increasingly easier to rip vinyl to MP3. All you really need is a USB cord. But vinyl does come with certain values that digital audio lacks.

“Vinyl has advantages. It’s a nostalgic collectors item plus a piece of art on top of quality sound,” Clebinger said. “The art comes out on a bigger format, so it’s more like an actual piece of artwork that you’re getting.”

While CDs certainly range in creativity, they’re no competition to vinyl. The avid vinyl collector is invested not only in the music, but the record as a whole.

Records require precise care and maintenance. They must be played and stored in a certain way to protect them from warping. They cannot be thrown around like a CD and still be expected to perform with the same quality as before.

The resurgence of vinyl should come as no surprise. The vintage appeal and warm sound is hard to match and impossible to beat. CDs and iTunes may provide good background music, but they will never amount to the experience of pulling a record out of its detailed cover, placing it on a turntable, setting the needle on the correct spot and watching it spin.

We’ve all seen this before. As new trends come in, old ones go out. But not all trends stay gone. Like your dad’s old comic book collection or your mom’s paper dolls, some things never get old.

Leidhra Johnson can be reached at [email protected]