There was a short piece in this week's NOW on one of my favourite subjects, vinyl vs CD (vs Claude Young, in this particular case). A few notes:

The article implied that the retro-fixation is unique to techno, but the house scene is similarly backward-oriented, not to mention the 80's revivals, electro revivals, the return of indie dance (encompassing billions of bands from the ubiquitous Franz Ferdinand to Junior Boys), and so on. So it's misleading to single out techno as being leadfooted.

MP3's are even lighter than CD's and vinyl, if we're going to talk about the portability benefits. And the lighter the load, the crappier the sound. Funny how that works (I'm willing to give the benefit of the doubt for a high bit rate MP3 played at high volume over an average club's sound system, but techno on MP3 sounds SOOOOOOOO awful played at home). And there's nothing about CD's that allows you to add loops or FX -- a sampler and an effects box will take care of that, medium independent.

"Much of techno's resistance to change is about how we define underground". Again, I don't think this exclusive to techno at all, rather, one could say "the persistence of vinyl is strongly linked to a need to keep the music underground". Turntables are pricey (moreso than CD players), and vinyl shops cater to those in the know. This serves to keep away all but the hardcore devotees.