OK, you have just settled down to listen to some music. You have got a great collection of ripped CDs and downloads (both CD-res and Hi-Res) and you also subscribe to full fat Qobuz, which of course contains a whole world of new music. You still feel, like for like, local streaming just pips Qobuz for SQ, but it is now a very close thing.
So what do you listen to? An old (or new) favourite from your NAS/Server, or try something entirely new you have queued up in your Qobuz ‘My Albums’ folder, or something Qobuz have suggested?
With the SQ and the array of albums in CD-res & Hi-Res now available from full fat Qobuz with the new streamers more compelling than ever, the choice of what to listen to just got tougher. The argument to continue to build your own collection in an expensive Server just got weaker. The ‘availability’ of a particular album is still of course a consideration, as is a flaky internet connection!
How do you decide what to listen to and from which ‘source’, and will you stick with local streaming or move over to the dark side of subscription streaming?
I trawl my way through reviews - looking for what they are listening to and adding these as favourites in Qobuz; I use threads, such as the Naim ‘What are you listening to …’ similarly.
I then listen to new stuff for a couple of hours before moving on to the familiar, from music server or Q.
I do still buy the Q albums I like as they occassionally disappear, very frustrating!
Depends on my mood. Sometimes I like to flick through my physical LP’s or browse the albums on my NAS and choose something I know. Other times I like to go on a Qobuz journey of discovery.
The ‘what are you listening to’ thread is a new favourite now I’ve got Qobuz.
I rarely browse my local ripped collection looking for something to play these days. If I know what I want to listen to then I’ll find it in my local ripped collection and play accordingly. If i just want some music nothing specific then I tend to browse my subscription streaming service and play either something from my library or perhaps a suggestion from the forum or elsewhere.
Listening to vinyl tends to be more of planned exercise and I will typically sit down for a couple of hours and listen to some vinyl. I primarily buy vinyl now and usually try and find a particular pressing that will sound good on my system.
I’m not sure I’ll be buying any more CDs in the future unless it’s something unique/limited. The future for me will probably be vinyl and streaming services such as Qobuz/Tidal.
Although I don’t own a TT, your description of how you choose a ‘stream’ to listen to sounds similar to how I choose.
I too think I will be buying fewer CDs to rip in future, unless unavailable from Qobuz. But I am old school and can’t quite yet walk away from my ‘local collection’. T’internet around here is occasionally temperamental too!
I think the other aspect of streaming that I enjoy is sharing tracks with friends…a friend of mine will often send me a track from an artist maybe I’ve never heard, something new from an artist we both like or perhaps something I’ve not listened to for a long time. Your local collection doesn’t help really in those situations. Having said that I still think my local collection sounds better but the streaming services are very acceptable to me particularly for occasional / ad-hoc listening.
I stopped ripping my CDs when I was about half way through because the rest were pretty much all on Tidal and sounded just as good on my system. I’m kind of happy that I have a local library as an option if there is an apocalypse but I can’t remember the last time I used anything from it. Haven’t bought a CD in 5 years and never will again!
I’m in much the same position, I really need a local collection for reliability, and to take with me while travelling. I certainly don’t see Qobuz 24 bit stuff as second best to CD rips though. There may be the odd occasion where a particular CD rip or a ludicrously overpriced hires download sounds better, but I’ve got better things to do than analysing every album I listen to and fretting over whether it’s the best possible version I can find.
It depends on the time of year. At the moment I use Roon’s discover function to browse my own collection. There are always surprises. Every few months, although not since lockdown, I subscribe. I find Tidal has more of the folk music I like, whilst Qobuz more classical and contemporary. I do still buy CDs, but more often I buy a download from Bandcamp or from Qobuz.
I’m still toying with buying a TT as I have a few hundred LPs that I have not replicated. On balance, I prefer my own collection.
Over the years I’ve had Spotify, Amazon, itunes and had 2 Tidal free trials (not tried Qobuz). I’ve always come back to my humble NAS/CDs. To me it sounds better, most of the streaming seems dead to me…flat and listless. I use itunes and amazon (snippets) to try out albums I want to buy on CD and then rip. Works for me and I’m happy…which is good I guess.
Although I have around 2000 CD’s on my NAS since I started using Qobuz at the end of February my gut feeling is that I now use Qobuz about 90% of the time. I have been loving the sound and quite happy with Qobuz HiRes streaming with my XPS DR > NDX 2 > HiCap DR > SN 2 > NAC A5 > ProAc D30RS, 4 box w/speakers system.
I am still quite happy with using the NAS for albums not located on Qobuz.
Maybe 30% of my music doesn’t exist in Qobuz. So even if I had a new generation Naim streamer, not sure I would subscribe to Qobuz.
I find more choices on Tidal, but the difference between it and my local music on Melco n1zh2 is too big to consider streaming Tidal.
I use Tidal maybe 2 months a year, and not every day, only to discover new albums.
However i discover more albums on Bandcamp.
I don’t use a dedicated streamer, instead streaming Qobuz via my laptop into an Arcam DAC, so cannot comment on the quality of Qobuz vs local files on a NAS via a dedicated streamer. However, in my experience, CD resolution streams via Qobuz sound slightly inferior to a CD played back via the same DAC. Hi-res material streamed from Qobuz sounds excellent though, and the £15 a month subscription less than many hi-res downloads. At the same time, used CDs can be picked up from a number of sources for around the £2 mark these days. Consequently, for anything unavailable in hi-res, or which I want in my collection (circa 1500 CDs), I purchase the CD. For anything else though - I’m perfectly happy streaming and find the sound quality generally very good (with a few notable exceptions which sound MP3 sourced - that’s probably for another thread though!)
That seems like a very high proportion of music that you can’t find. Sometimes I find that the search function of Qobuz and Tidal does not find an album or artist that does exist in their collection, so perhaps you need to search more carefully?
I have a core of music to which I return frequently, which I would always want to be available without worrying if the internet is playing up, if the online streaming provider still stocks it, etc. Add to that the fact that with some 1200 albums I don’t have constant yearning for new music, just occasional delights will do, and i see nothing fir me in subscription streaming. Free Spotify is good enough to sample new things to check out if I like, or sometimes samples on band sites, utube etc. So For me it’s stick and not move over!
I do not need to decide because I have cancelled all my subscriptions. After having tried Tidal, Qobuz and Idagio, I have decided that Idagio was the best but not good enough to allow me to browse through my favorites the way I want to do it. I am left with about 650 albums which is far more than what I need …
Another great thread topic @NigelB. I find that I go to Qobuz probably 80% of the time although I’m convinced that local streaming of the same,all else being equal, is usually better.
I’m under the impression that streaming from Roon however brings the SQ quality of internet streamed material equal to local.
I believe @trickydickie explained that on a prior thread.
Planning on trying Roon in the near future.
Sometimes a simple search like that doesn’t work. I don’t know why, but I have found that problem with both Tidal and Qobuz, and others have reported it here too. Using the Tidal or Qobuz apps instead of the Naim app is more reliable.