hi @trickydickie , @NigelB , @HouseholdNaim
thanks for the feedback but i don’t feel it is as easy as that. you probably missed the earlier part of the thread about the high percentage of music missing from the streaming services- in my case c30% missing from qobuz and tidal isn’t much better.
given the direction the market is taking cds feel like a very short term solution so that leaves downloads and some form of storage - but living in the sticks there isn’t much good advice available on that front locally nor on networking and i gather from various very long threads on the forum that it isn’t that simple - plus routing ethernet cables through the house is a real problem. hoping that naim sorts its issues with wi-fi . i understand stevesky is focusing on this but not keen to buy a new streamer ND5 XS2 or NDX2 until they do. the nearest dealer who stocks the naim and chord items i am interested in is a three hour journey each way so getting them to help install networking kit isn’t easy - combined with the view expressed on another thread that at least some naim dealers aren’t up to the job and rolling out naim’s training schedule seems a fairly long term project. on the source first principle getting that right is essential if i am going to spend 20k+ on the kit.
sorry for all that - this was really just a contribution to the thread topic music collection or subscription?
Why don’t you check out Idagio and Primephonic - they are both classical music only streaming services and have a much better range. They also arrange the metadata in a way that allows the search function to work properly. ATB
Just had a look and it seems Hyperion aren’t on either of those 2 either - perhaps they just don’t allow streaming of their works. Back to ripping CD’s then!
as far as i can see hyperion aren’t on any streaming service - they seem to do quite well selling downloads from their own website- so i guess their business model excludes streaming services. given their often stellar reviews i guess they don’t have too much trouble attracting new customers
I take it you get the monthly Hyperion newsletter. If not then sign up, you get a code for 20% one release each month - usually their most desirable new release. I always get the 96k download rather than the CD.
I had been wondering about Qobuz ever since I acquired a source with Qobuz integrated. The reduction in UK price and being stuck at home for months eventually prompted me to take out a subscription. I take a while to fully adjust to a new regime so I decided to commit to a year’s subscription, which means that monthly outlay is around the cost of one CD, so still plenty in the budget for buying music to keep.
Unlike others I haven’t found the choice overwhelming. Sometimes I read or hear about an album and Qobuz often gives me the opportunity to listen to it and make up my own mind. Often, I just choose a genre and look at recent albums. I have found myself listening to a lot of really enjoyable new stuff which I don’t think I would have done if I’d had to commit to buying the album. Quite often that leads to other albums by the same artists or works by the same composer. Sometimes I just listen to familiar stuff on the NAS. Overall, I have found that combining streaming and a local library has significantly enhanced my musical pleasure.
A Uniti Nova is a great way to restart or even complete the audio journey.
Or pick up a used NDS (and a PS), and a used Supernait 2 like I did, and revel in the sound. Excellent value.
thanks david1111
i already have a muso2 as my toe in the water intro to streaming, wi-fi etc. having heard the difference a chord qutest can make to a naim system i am keen to explore the options chord and naim offer. probably unusually (and for complicated reasons) i am starting from scratch but want to shortcut the upgrade path by deciding now on my end-game system and probably going ahead and getting it over the next year or so - preferably in a couple of stages - but avoiding losing money (and time) by gradually upgrading components . so juggling a lot of options in choosing that system. getting back to the thread topic - with apologies to the op that i seem to have hijacked it - the absence of so much of the music i want to listen to from streaming services just adds a level of complication i wish i could avoid.
Your pre-planning is wise. I’m sure you’ll save a lot of $, and end up with a better system as well. Chord Dacs are superb from what I hear.
Regarding the music, I have been frustrated occasionally by the lack of a particular piece of streamed music, but I’ve only been streaming for less than 2 years, so it hasn’t happened too often. I will most likely buy a Uniti Core, or an Innuos Zen Mini at some point, and rip my CDs so I have multiple formats to listen to. Some of my CDs, especially classical, are not available on Tidal. Some classic rock as well.
thanks david1111. you are well ahead of me- i’ve only been streaming for six months. i don’t know if you can get qobuz on your kit, but if you can i would certainly recommend it (i joined the beta-test team partly to get qobuz early). it doesn’t solve the absence of some labels (esp hyperion for classical) but to me the high-res sounds significantly better than tidal or my ripped cds stored on my laptop. the availability of the cd-booklets - certainly for nearly all new classical releases - is a major plus (you need to run qobuz own app to get to them but can then download them) - it fills a major gap in the streaming model.
i agree the absence of some classic rock titles is also an issue - i haven’t noticed qobuz is any worse than tidal (which i subscribed to for a few months) and the core albums are available on both. i find much of the missing stuff is available free on spotify to fill the gap until you get the unity core or other box.
re the plan my biggest worry is that i haven’t auditioned any hi-fi for 20 years so am rather rusty at distinguishing what is different from what is better (for me), and what sounds better in the artificial situation of the demo from what is better longer-term. i need to look at the possibility of home demos - but i think it will be a while before those are available again. again apologies to the op for the threat hi-jack
Yes, I guess we should stop hi-jacking the thread. Apologies to OP.
But I’ll just say that at the moment, Qobuz isn’t available in Canada, or via my NDS. There are ways around getting an account using a VPN, but I need a Qobuz receiver/streamer first. I’d rather have a Naim product, but it will probably be a Innuos or it can be don’t thru a computer and such.
In the meantime, at least the iradio, Tidal 44.1 CD quality, and CD player will sound very good thru the NDS / SN2.
I find that actually listening sessions for new gear to be very uninformative, due to the variables you mention. Many of the members here have these products setup in their homes, with similar gear to mine, and I find that their recommendations are more helpful to my situation/decision-making, than anything else. I research very thoroughly, and my head analyses their info along the way, and I feel that if absolutely everyone loves a particular product … then chances are, I’ll like the sound of it.
However, a home listening session to finalize a tough choice, is probably the best.
And I loved your ‘threat hi-jack’ mis-type. Sounded quite sinister …
Best of luck.
Definitely for me, Tidal & Qobuz streaming because there is no way for me to build a local library that can match the universe of music offered by Tidal & Qobuz, simply for the reason that new music albums have been added every day, and a lots of music out there waiting to be “discovered”.
A number of people mention this as a drawback. Maybe some people have poor Internet service provision.
I don’t recall my Internet service being down at any point in time in recent years, and even if there were to be a blip, then I have two thousand or so albums on my NAS as a fall-back.
Nowadays, I play all of my digital music (apart from Radio Paradise on my Muso Qb) via Roon, and I simply don’t bother to check whether the source is on my local NAS or streamed from Tidal. Any (very) small difference in sound quality isn’t worth worrying about.
cheers dave - i have been reading - and re-reading - many threads here and balancing sometimes conflicting opinions - and all of that will go into the demo room with me. and as you say its all well loved kit so what can go wrong?
nigel
To be fair the internet is quite reliable these days. We are however in a small village but have a couple of towns around us. There is now fiber to the centre of the village but the last half mile to me is copper, and we do get the very occasional outage. In time of course this concern should be consigned to the history books.
Internet connection can vary hugely depending where you live. Where I am, is is common in the evening for everything to slow right up, and lost connections happen at least once a week. And I understand that in some other parts of Britain very slow connection speeds are the norm.
Fibre is no guarantee of outage free internet. Try Virgin and you will see. I hate having no choice in my area but to use these over subscribing ingrates. Maybe now they merged with Telefonica might get some decent infrastructure. What am I talkkng about, that will never happen.