You're probably right about middle class origins Tanuki but on the other hand something is definitely happening.... even if it's a bit naive and self aggrandising from our point of view! I wish I'd spent more money on the vinyl jazz revival [in the nineties] when HMV Manchester had a giant basement full of Jazz re-issues, posters, literature etc. One day it was all gone
until the rather more recent vinyl resurgences. "Fashion" as Bowie would say!
I've got a few thousand cassette tapes, many ex Beeb program recordings. In a moment of madness, I did once dump some high end auto reverse player/recorders thinking I couldn't get them repaired. Then I found the Forum
As for the lack of Hi Fi Uncle B, the article mentions that many new converts regard the hiss as a part of the ongoing charm-just like the surface noise with 78's perhaps
This notion of presenting something in a different medium or format is probably as old as the technology itself. A single from one of Roger Waters solo albums was issued on reel to reel in a presentation box in [I think] the late 80's. I gave it to a friend of mind who is a devotee and thinks RW is the real Pink Floyd!
Dave