I added Roon to my system last year along with Qobuz and Tidal. I am completely hooked. I love buying and playing albums, but the streaming services are really outstanding. I am finding new music and I love being able to play music non-stop all day long. I was planning on getting a new CD player, but now that plan is on hold. All my CDs are ripped and I let Roon handle the playback. I’m not certain if I will even get a new CD player now. It seems like a waste of money to play a disc if my ripped discs and streaming sound just as good. I’d rather spend that money I had budgeted for the CD player on new vinyl.
A different world
For decades I have struggled to get digital even close to comparable to analog. Then finally a couple years ago after lots of upgrading and experimentation I succeeded. Streaming is equally satisfying with analog, very, very comparable. The full soundstage, instruments suspended in space, tonal balance, dead silent background, and details of brass cymbals … etc. Red Book CDs through my CD player are bested by my streamer with Qobuz or Tidal with hi-Rez versions.
A new world. It takes a while to get it. No longer confined to music you “own” to play over and over. Replay is supplanted by exploration. You love an new (or old album) and hit, “add to library”. It is yours.
So, HiFi+ magazine has an article on building a European 21st Century Jazz Library. I just start with the first album in the list and listen (add to library), the 2nd album (add to library), the third… the forth, fifth… a whole new category of incredible music to sit along side Miles Davis and Hank Moberly. Just a couple days in the life of a audiophile streamer. I could have never predicted this as a possibility ten years ago.
You love music? The goal of having an infinite audiophile library is now possible. It is possible at any high end level… just requires knowledge that it can be done… and I guess give up the idea that there is something special about your CD collection, or players.
I have a 2,000 vinyl albums, play them, usually one a day. They are fun, occasionally sound ever slightly better… but not significantly, I like them for nostalgic reasons.