I occasionally want access to tracks but mostly want access to albums. I’ll have the odd night where I flip between tracks unheard for a while but largely spend Friday (release day) adding new faves to listen to; the next week listening to them and starting to decide whether to keep/bin/buy and a couple of evenings blasting through album after album from the existing collection. Zero choice paralysis. I act largely as I did when I had vinyl and largely as I did when I had CD.
I find that discovery of new music, in particular from my two adult children, and curated lists are the big benefit of streaming. That and the ability to play our game of alternating picks on a play list when they are visiting. I also like being able to see my play history. I also like the “play an album” thing that comes from both Vinyl and CD.
I almost always listen from my local server and I am happy with the sound. Avoid the bigger-number-is-better game and you’ll be fine. Lower numbers reduce RFI-noise, reduce jitter and improve the accuracy. Dont mess with the bits, just feed them to the DAC preferrably without upsampling/oversampling.
I am just using an analog preamp (analog volume control) and analog poweramp. And the local fileserver/streamer just feed unchanged bits to a non-oversampling DAC.
completely agree with the OP. and really appreciate the post. after being on screens all day, the last thing i want to do to listen to music is to be on yet another screen, typing. to my ears, i have never heard streaming that sounds better than great CD sound. granted that streaming has advantages of cost and storage space (and the disadvantage of tending to skip around albums), but for convenience and pleasure - CD is much preferable to me.
I am contemplating going CDless for the first time in thirty years ,and it is a very big shock to the system , possibly a BluSound Node X ,plus Qutest, plus Nait 50. Auditioned last Thursday and lots of thinking going on
I like both streaming and CD’s. They are different but not so much in my ears. The LP is obsolete in my view, and I would not put a penny to struggle to get decent sound with that technology.
I had a NAKAMICHI CDPlayer 30 years ago that was really nice. Then more recently, I had 2 OPPO. I like the OPPO for the SCAD possibility. I run it with my NAIM DAC.
Now I got myself a discontinued Small footprint REGA APOLLO CD player. It is really good as a transport or as a player. I love it.
I returned a PROJECT CDBox with very bad customer experience. And anyway, it did not worth the money compare to the REGA. Never had the chance to listen to a NAIMCD player yet.
I am happy that I have kept my CD’s .
I am a confirmed streamer, although my discs are all in storage and available - yesterday, I realized I had a disc that I had forgotten to rip. I also have SACD players for my two main systems.
For the most part I stream locally, but I have an account with Qobuz. For me, the advantages of streaming are as follows:
Instant gratification - when I hear something I like, I can purchase it, and it is immediately available. As many of my purchases are classical music, which I get from overseas vendors, this is a big deal. Note - the vast bulk of my downloads are CD quality or better.
Checking stuff out - When someone recommends a performance, often by a composer unknown to me, I can listen to it without purchasing. Usually, I don’t purchase - my library is big enough.
Convenience - Not just being able to control my library from my armchair, but also having smart speakers in my kitchen, bedside, and bathroom.
Organization - tagging is a PITA, especially for classical. But it helps me find what I’m looking for and the display reminds me of recordings I haven’t heard in a while (or sometimes never).
Playlists - I’m not a big fan, but I make them and use them (mostly on Qobuz). (However, I don’t use the favorites feature at all.)
Space - I live in a NYC apartment. By the time I switched from CDs, I had them hidden in every nook and cranny.
The major disadvantage is the number of glitches. My two main systems are connected by Ethernet to a mesh router and satellite. But things still happen. A lot of components (and software) have to talk to one another, and sometimes they balk at it. For the last week, my internet connection went down for an hour or more each day. My Internet Service Provide explained that the company’s underground cable was situated too close to the power company’s steam vent, which was causing damage.
I’ve gotten to the point where I know where to look for and resolve the problem (nothing to do about the steam pipe, however).
Edit - I guess I should add that streaming and steaming don’t mix.
I’ve certainly never had anything I’ve streamed (from my own store) skip anything when playing, but I have experienced many occasions when a CD has skipped when playing.
I’ve certainly had occasions where the stream skipped to the end of a track. It doesn’t happen frequently and the problem is usually with a streaming service track.
I used to have it frequently with LMS, until after a lot of trial and error, I located an issue with my set-up and fixed it.
I think that having all the music in this world available any moment through loudspeakers is not normal, is not beneficial to its enjoyment and is not culturally and psychologically sane.
When I was a young man the search for a record, the wait for a concert or the release of a new album, the struggle to lay hands on something new and interesting was 50% of the pleasure. Now nothing is new, nothing is old, nothing lasts and nothing passes. We’re soaked in an ocean of availability, the first passing by is a genius, nothing has value anymore.
This thread goes hand in hand with the survey about how many hours a day one listens to music on Naim. What about a survey on how many times a week (month, year) one - well, you know what.
by "skip around"i meant the tendency, as noted above on this thread, for listeners (certainly me) to become so enamored with the vast selection on streaming that we just jump around from thing to thing without staying engaged very deeply or for long. for me its the “kid in the candy store” effect.
agreed, it was just super refreshing to read the OP’s pro-CD take in a world where streaming seems to be generallly considered undisputed king, and CD as a relic of the past…
Just love that analogy! But I do think we’re going to have to learn to swim in that ocean, which perhaps requires a fair measure of self-discipline. Personally, it works for me and I now listen to a wider range of recorded music and enjoy listening more than I’ve ever done.
I used to love receiving a surprise CD as a gift, sometimes at Christmas for example, by an artist previously unknown to me and reading the sleeve notes and listening on repeat a couple of times to get myself accustomed to the music.
Sadly, a “download token” or recommendation simply isn’t the same.
That’s also one reason I never sold my LP’s and still listen to them regularly.
The other reason is that in some instances, the sound is far more pleasant on LP - for example, Dare by Human League sounds horrible on CD to my ears compared to the LP or streaming.
I should add that I also love the simplicity of streaming.
My NDX2 with XPS2 sounds lovely most of the time - except for some of those rare harsh CD rips or streamed albums.
Most of the time it’s just simple.
If I might say. When I created this post it was not discuss which medium was the best. I fully accept that the majority of reviewers and hifi enthusiasts would say that the ‘best’ would probably be 1. reel to reel, 2. vinyl, 3. high definition steaming or ripping and 4. 16 bit CD. My specific point was that CD was straight forward and simple. In my case one box with no special cables. Despite perhaps being no.4 in the pecking order, choosing and playing CDs is very enjoyable for me. With little scope for tweaking I can enjoy my system as it is for years to come.
