When his grandfather gave him an old record player last year, Kyle Voorhees fell in love with vinyl. It was old and the speakers were blown out, he said, but "I took it and ran with it."

In the past year and a half, the 19-year-old from Friendswood has amassed a collection of more than 500 records, mostly jazz and country from his grandparents' era.

On Sunday, Voorhees sorted through dozens of bins full of vinyl records, picking out albums from Josephine Baker and Julie London at the Houston Record Convention. He held up London's "Send for Me," first released in 1961. "I've got almost all her albums," Voorhees said, including a mono version of this one - but before noon Sunday, he'd bought one more.

The convention, which fills a Hilton conference room on the Southwest Freeway six times a year, brings in dealers from Texas and a few surrounding states. At table after table Sunday, music fans sorted piles of old-school vinyl, from the Bob Wills to the Beatles, Herb Alpert to AC/DC.

Many of them, like Voorhees, were shopping for records much older than they were. The record-buying crowd is getting younger, said Dave Ritz, who has organized the record show since 1978 (by his count, Sunday's show was No. 287). He has seen the market for vinyl plunge, flatten out, and then, in the past few years, rise again.

A couple of years ago, Ritz said, the convention crowd "was down primarily to old guys with walkers - and they were coming out of habit." But that's turning around. Now Ritz sees an influx of younger fans who, like Voorhees, remember their parents or grandparents listening to records. Record-buying is "back with a vengeance," and he gives credit to millennials.

Nationwide, the numbers seem to back up Ritz' theory. The Recording Industry Association of America reported that in the past two years, LP sales were higher than they've been since 1989. And according to the consumer research company Music Watch, 72 percent of the folks buying vinyl now are 35 and younger.

"It's interesting to see the diversity of what young people will buy," he said. "Obviously, things like Led Zeppelin or (Jimi) Hendrix. But Nat King Cole records sell really well to 20-somethings."

Claudie Estrada, 20, bought albums by Pink Floyd and Tame Impala on Sunday. She owned both albums already, but these were cleaner, better copies. Estrada's boyfriend got her interested in vinyl three or four years ago, and together they have a collection of about 3,500 records.

"It's very retro, old-school, vintage, and I like that," she said. "You can just put one on and play it."

'A beautiful sound'

She used to download digital music, said Estrada, who lives in League City. But she's realized that shopping for records helps her discover more and better music. "If the cover looks cool, I pick it up," she said. "That's what's interesting about records: If it's cool, you just pick it up, especially if it's cheap, and sometimes you find little gems."

Ritz expected between 350 and 500 shoppers to drop by Sunday's show. Many of the records on sale Sunday were between $10 and $25, although some rare, mint-condition albums were priced in the hundreds or thousands. But John Hiatt and Rod Stewart records could be found in the $1 bin, and a pile of old posters, Ritz told customers, were "$5 each and come with a free rubber band."

Voorhees has records that date back to the 1920s. The sound is better than an mp3, he says.

"To me, it sounds warmer, and you can feel the emotion in some of the songs," he said.

"It's such a beautiful sound - it's smoother, unless you've got an older record that's really scratched. But even then, you can feel the emotion coming through the pops."

It's the sound quality that wins over new vinyl fans, Ritz said. After listening to mp3s on headphones, hearing a record played on a decent stereo "is a whole different ball game - it sounds far more rich." For young fans, especially, discovering a parent or grandparent's record collection is "an experience," he said. "It's cool."

'Cracks and pops'

Sunday's show was the first for Stephen Miller and Jessica Thompson, who just started building a collection in the past year.

"We actually bought records before we had a record player that would work," Thompson said: When a Pantera box set came out last year, they couldn't resist. Now they have a suitcase-style turntable and more than 100 albums.

"I can remember Mom and Dad spinning vinyl," Miller said. Now he's introducing his own daughter, 8-year-old Briana, to good music on LP. On Fridays in their Kingwood household, they put on their favorite records - classic rock, metal, some early '90s grunge - and call it Vinyl Friday.

"There's something nostalgic to that, that you can't get from a CD or listening to a digital download," Miller said. "To me, the cracks and pops, that's what I like about it. It takes me back to being a kid and rocking out with mom and dad."