Well I guess it is not new anymore but having moved to the modern world twice over (having gone from vinyl to CD and now to the ‘virtual’ world), I wonder if anyone regrets the move to streaming or, like me, wonders if the issues with networks etc makes this a marginal call for them?
I ask having just found I cannot see or access any of music on my NAS so will be spending a bit of time on this, rather than actually listening to the music.
I don’t regret my move but it has not been a smooth journey!
And there was me thinking you were starting a thread about New Age music.
6 Likes
I think I should go and listen to some just now as it should make me feel more relaxed and optimistic 
3 Likes
Only on days like the one you are having. The trick is to keep track of the various glitches so as to be able to quickly identify the most likely cause.
I still have those days where I am truly stymied - I’ve had more than my share over the past few months with Naim and ChromeCast - but I now have workarounds for all those issues.
1 Like
Streaming can be frustrating sometimes although I recently bought a CD box set and attempted to rip it with dbpoweramp but due to so many errors it took a couple of days! I sent it back for a replacement but the new copy was much the same. (I have double-checked other CDs I have and these still work fine with the same drive.) I don’t know whether it would have played ok on a CD player but for sure, it would have been far easier to download or stream. I’ve also had quite a few errors on Blu-Ray discs recently whilst never experiencing any problems streaming 4K films.
I can also remember the days of going back to the shops to return faulty vinyl.
However, there is a lot to be said for keeping it simple and I am more and more attracted to one-box solutions (including storage), especially products like the Grimm MU2 which I heard at a hifi show and was very impressed by.
As an aside though, quite apart from hifi, most things seem to be more complicated now than they used to be with often little or no added value.
No regrets whatsoever here: better sound quality than CD or vinyl (though original DAC was just same sound quality as CD - the door to better DACs was opened). Unbroken play of long musical works. Virtually zero storage space (though I keep a few album sleeve notes, primarily opera libretti).
I don’t stream across a network - I play my own stored albums LP and CD rips, plus downloads (both 16/44 and high res), streamed direct via USB to my DAC, so no network issues to worry about.
I’ve just spent January overhauling my home network. I needed a NAS as my photography files were getting out of hand (I’m a serious amateur street and documentary photographer). 1TB of files and multiple backup disks and cloud getting a significant annual cost. That allowed a move of music files to the NAS and then a switch upgrade. Sure it takes a bit of fiddling, setting IP addresses, routing some cables, getting a couple of EE8 switches etc.
The impact is quite significant though and completely undermines the ASR/bits are bits crowd. Sorting the network had the effect of making NAS files much better than Qobuz. Reintroducing Audirvāna has sorted that.
Final step is the Farad LPS arriving end of next week.
Getting streaming right is every bit as complex as fettling a TT, and requires the whole house network to be optimised. It doesn’t ‘click’ until it’s all reasonably sorted. Has improved reliability as well.
My images now also sit on a raid drive, with a nightly back up and an off site rotation, so all good.
I’ve been streaming video and audio either local or online for 15 years. I’ve never regretted it but never given up my CD collection or DVD/BR collections either.
It’s part of a buffet of access to music which for me includes online and local streaming, CD, and vinyl. I do not consider any to be my “main” source. Local streaming gets the most use purely as a ratio of how much of my collection is available there.
I don’t really recall any network issues in all those years, though I know full well from the forum that there are those who have been struck by problems and extreme frustration. But if you are already streaming Netflix or similar without issues, there’s no reason to think music will be more difficult.
As for quality, I would advise, for maximum musical enjoyment, to not go there. The discussions of streaming versus CD versus vinyl are endless, circular, and at times bordering on nuts. Get a streamer, CD player, or turntable you like. By all means compare it’s relative merits to other products of the same type. But be aware all can be good enough to enjoy music (with the exception of true digital versus analgue martyrs who are so caight up in their format war they likely can’t find time to enjoy anything). You will find some things come into your hands more readily on different formats. Just enjoy the additional options another type of source provides.
10 Likes
That’s very wise. I too moved from vinyl to CD and finally to streaming, with over 4,000 albums stored on my NAS, and also having Qobuz. I went through a very frustrating period when various Naims repeatedly disappeared from the App, which coincided with using a mesh network. I went through three different setups yet the problems remained. We now have one really powerful router and - touch wood - the problems seem to have gone. I’ve no idea why the mesh gave problems; the three units were all wired according to the instructions. That period was really, really frustrating, with endless hours lying on the floor trying different things.
1 Like
I went from playing vinyl and CDs to streaming. Initially had BT Broadband (FTTC) and suffered with continual problems caused by many issues, as it turned out.
Changed to Gigaclear (FTTH) using a Mesh network, no issues and solid as a rock.
DG…
1 Like
When I got my 272 I decided to rip my CDs to a NAS, a retirement project. This was time-consuming and a learning process but worthwhile in the end, though I still have the CDs, just in case …
Once I got a streamer with Qobuz built in I took out a subscription and find it an excellent way of extending my musical taste, particularly if I see something interesting in one of the Music Room threads.
Very occasionally I run into network issues, particularly after the system has been switched off while I’ve been away and a bit of network maintenance is sometimes required. But all in all, je ne regretted rien.
Roger
1 Like
This thread brings me back to 2012 and my UnitiServe>Naim Dac setup, with a Synology Nas to backup the UServe and also serve as a storage site for my own downloads. This was my very first home hifi setup in 20 yrs and home networked music was a must-have when I shopped for it. It came down to Naim and UServe vs. Meridian and Sooloos; I went with Naim.
Whew that was not all that reliable, but we did have the great Phil Harris at Naim to help us customers. Every time I had an issue, Phil was able to resolve it. It was usually something about the UServe, such as it being super picky about file and folder names.
Fast forward . . . I’ve not had a single “network issue” in years. My setup is pretty simple. ND555 hard-wired via cat cables to my Roon Nucleus, which is also hard wired on the same network through a big not-fancy switch to a nas for backups. My current home wifi is a Netgear ORBI mesh system that communicates with its router/hub through cat cables too.
1 Like
Thanks for your views. I don’t regret the move to the modern ways nut I have definitely gone to as simple as possible.
Everything is working fine as of now - no idea as to how and why. I have just sat here working and had a look a couple of times. Initially I had ‘over-achieved’ as I could see two of everything.
I am def not looking to get into SQ issues but I miss the vinyl in the sense that the vinyl felt more of an ‘event’.
Good to hear from you all.